Social ActionThanksgiving 2013

Juliet Mazoleny, Katelyn Meeks, Laura McCann, and Monica Petrella

Feeding People

Problem

Varies Varies

ImpactSolution

Our Story

We have collected everybody’s social action that they completed over Thanksgiving Break and came up with our class story.

Our Results

For feasibility, the majority of actions were feasible. Only two individuals felt that their actions were not as feasible. For instance, some social actions require that volunteers be associated with their organization in order to participate, which is not possible for everyone. Fortunately, the majority of the actions were feasible and all of the actions completed by our class are able to be duplicated.

Our Results

The majority of our actions were short term, but helped many people. Three people participated in actions that were long term. Many events were seasonal, but the long term ones were able to be done throughout the year and recur often enough to help lessen food insecurity.

436 or more members of our community were helped by just our class alone! Thanks to all who participated in our Thanksgiving social action.The most common social action performed was food donations.The activity with the largest impact affected 200 individuals.

Our Impact

For our virtual tweet over the thanksgiving holiday we asked you all to go out and do a self-less act in the name of the holiday. We requested that it had to do with food but at the end of the day Thanksgiving is more than just eating a delicious meal with your family. Its a day dedicated to “thanks” - to remember what you have and appreciate it. Unfortunately, some traditions have changed in the past few years. The introduction of “Black Friday” has distracted Americans from being thankful for what we have and instead has focused on what we WANT. It has been reported that several deaths have been directly related to Black Friday sales and there is even a site dedicated to reporting these incidences (blackfridaydeathcount.com). This probably isn’t how the original pilgrims imagined Thanksgiving in the future would be…

Here is a video interview regarding Black Friday frenzy and the incredible demand from consumers to open the doors sooner. What are you thoughts? Isn’t it interesting that the sales are actually not remarkably better on Black Friday than any other day of the year? Does this mean that consumers are the ones driving the excessive hours? For every store thats open on BF we have to remember that someone has to be working the store. This means they can’t spend time with their families. In the video the women explains that “they don’t have a choice” to work or not and that they are “usually” paid time and a half to compensate for their holiday hours but other claims say different.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thanksgiving-shopping-20131129,0,3775907.story#axzz2mFngqlLS

As mentioned it seems that Thanksgiving has developed into a selfish consumer holiday but as Stephen Colbert points out in this comical report its easy to become selfish in other ways too. This year Hanukkah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day which is claims is simply not ok to him. Hopefully this comical satire will cause you to think a little deeper about the meaning of thanksgiving and the original idea of “giving thanks” rather than the selfish desires Colbert points out.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/429620/october-08-2013/thanksgiving-under-attack---hanukkah

Thank you for your kind act. Not only does the immediate community surrounding your act thank you but we thank you for helping preserve a holiday build on gratefulness and gratitude rather than selfish demands and new 32 inch TVS.