The Timely Diplomacy of Thanksgiving

By: Leslie G. Sarasin, President and CEO, Food Marketing Institute

The timing could not be more fortuitous. After a particularly contentious and vicious political season that exposed the depth and severity of every divide and difference across the American civic landscape, the nation is hungry – in body and spirit - for the healing diplomacy of a good Thanksgiving meal.

For a nation in search of healing and in quest of meaningful reunion, this year’s Thanksgiving Day could not come at a better time. Coming back together will be a journey, but a smart start for that trip is to take small steps bathed in gratitude surrounded by family and friends. The national holiday that bids us to count our blessings and give thanks for all that is good, healthy and wholesome in our lives offers all of us the perfect opportunity to pause – encircled by those we love – and give serious thought to how very fortunate we are to live where and how we do. Thanksgiving invites us to put the accent on positive appreciation and push aside any negative derision or division.

I will confess that I have always loved Thanksgiving. As holidays go, it is more contemplative in nature and its central identifying act combines things I love: family, friends and food. But this year, I’m particularly grateful for Thanksgiving as a time for all of us to do some soul searching in the context of a bounteous meal shared with others. At the table together, we are urged to put differences aside, listen to each other and let gratitude overflow, filling any of the residual empty places. What better way to heal, to draw closer together and realign our priorities than to sit down to eat together. Food might be our best diplomatic tool for the healing we need at this time.

The local grocery store silently participates in every family meal and offers immeasurable unseen support to each holiday feast.  Food draws us together and provides us a common point of reference – whether for the simple need of sustenance or for a shared taste of something absolutely delicious.  Perhaps that’s why we tend to be more civil to one another when gathered around a dinner table; we are more focused on what we hold in common and less on how we differ. As purveyors of the food that draws us together, grocery stores play a role in bringing our country back to the true source of its strength and greatness as summarized in our national motto – E pluribus Unum – out of many, one.

This Thanksgiving I have my customary things for which I give thanks; my family, friends, good health, a job that is at once challenging and satisfying and an amazing team of individuals with whom to work. But this year I also offer a special word of thanks for my country and for all members of the food retail industry, who do so much more than just feed the families of our homeland, you also enrich the lives of all who reside in this nation.