With Thanksgiving coming up, family, friends, and neighbors are ready to show gratitude and thankfulness by giving back. Poly also celebrates the season of thankfulness every year by giving back to the community with the canned food drive.
Every year clubs are able to participate in this tradition by informing their members about the opportunity to give back to the community. The canned food drive allow members to bring in canned food and from there all the work is handled. The canned food then circulates back to the Long Beach Community to those in need.
Many are more than enthusiastic to be able to give their members an open resource to actively be involved in. Which creates a more festive vibe during the holiday season. This year clubs got together to donate boxes of mashed potatoes, stuffing mix, instant potatoes, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy and more.
The amount of time put into the Thanksgiving drive is also substantial. Audrey Deth from ASB stated that the “time we take for a drive, that involves student, takes a while because we need to make sure there is enough time for students to get the items they are donating and to have time to organize.”
Other clubs hosted their own events for the holiday food drive. For example, Reviver, an environmentalist club at Poly hosted their own Canned Food Drive. Wendy Ngau, the Vice President of Reviver, stated that they “have reached out to around 15 teachers that are willing to participate by encouraging students to donate canned or imperishable food. Which they will collect and give to Long Beach Rescue Missions.” Reviver makes sure that members of their club are able to participate as well by allowing them to go to the Long Beach Rescue Mission during Sunday Kiss to organize and serve food.
During this holiday season remember to be to give back to your community. Sitting down and enjoying a Thanksgiving meal will be more fulfilling knowing that you provided a warm meal to others! With the completion of another year of the food drive, hopefully the canned food drive is one tradition that will never fade. With the end of the food drive, the thankfulness of the holiday season isn’t yet over; the Christmas toy drive is on its way and clubs are eager to bring toys that will be distributed to children in need during the Holiday Project on December 7th.
Tag: thanksgiving
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Poly Gives Back With Thanksgiving Drive
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Not Home for the Holidays
Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Years! Happy to be home for the holidays! But wait…. instead of being able to be reunited with loved ones people are faced with deportation. Wow what a Christmas miracle!
If you couldn’t tell, I was being ironic. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to be with their families during the holiday season due to Trump’s Administration embracing the bill, R.A.I.S.E. (Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy). The bill is meant to raise American wages by ending chain migration and by reducing the amount of Green Cards by 50%, yet, the bill ultimately fails to address an important aspect of deportation… the human within the statistics of “illegal aliens.”
This holiday, we want to be able to celebrate the end of the decade with loved ones, but in order to do that our community must rise up against the tyranny occurring in our backyards. Instead of Santa Claus, children catch a sight of I.C.E. in front of their homes. Instead of Santa quietly sneaking in and stealing cookies, children are faced with the disruption of I.C.E. barging in their homes and taking their parents away. Instead of tears of joy, the community is encountered with tears of sorrow.
In the fiscal year of 2018 more than 256,000 people were deported. According to the Washington Post, “I.C.E. said that 2,711 who were traveling in families and 5,571 unaccompanied children were removed from U.S. soil.” With the end of 2019 arriving, we can only hope that the amount of families separated decrease.
With a large number of students at Poly being first generation Americans, this situation hits close to home. As opposed to former president, Barack Obama, who only deported immigrants convicted of serious crimes, Mr. Trump wants more rigid policies that would break up families.
Peoples aren’t only deported for coming to America illegally but even legal immigrants are being deported if they have committed a numerous amount of misdemeanors, not accounting for how long ago it occurred and whether the person has changed or not. The measures that have been taken to deport family members away are unjust and some of the immigrants being deported are refugees who came into this country not knowing much. As a result, they were destined to suffer in this failed system called America, the land of the free! Family members and immigrants shouldn’t suffer from a failed system that is not set up to assimilate refugees and immigrants.
In order to stay safe this holiday, you should know your rights. I highly suggest you search up a know your rights card and if an I.C.E. officer does try to instigate a situation show them the card and attain a lawyer. Remember you have the right to remain silent during this holiday season.
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The Truth About Thanksgiving
Most of us have heard the story of the pilgrims as kids. As we have been told, the pilgrims were immigrants from England who traveled to America seeking religious freedom. An English-speaking Native American named Squanto helped the pilgrims find food and learn how to use the land so they could survive in the new world. As thanks to the Native Americans, the pilgrims held a feast with a turkey, united together as one people to show gratitude for their bountiful harvest and good friends.
Today, however, many of my friends are against the celebration of Thanksgiving because they believe that we are not celebrating friendship, but instead the oppression of the Native Americans. By coming to America, the first settlers brought diseases to the native people, attacked them, and stole the land that was rightfully theirs. Therefore, to celebrate Thanksgiving is to support the slaughter of the “real Americans” and forceful takeover of their homeland.
However, many historians believe that this story that we have been told about these first settlers is indeed false. For one, the pilgrims did not come to America seeking religious freedom. According to the Plimoth Plantation, a museum dedicated to preserving history of the Plymouth Colony, the pilgrims had already fled religious persecution from England by immigrating to Holland. While there, they had complete freedom over what religion or church they followed or associated themselves with. No, they didn’t come seeking religious freedom, but instead because they feared they would lose their culture. Many of their children had begun to move away from their families and associate themselves with the Dutch culture. To preserve their identity as an English people, they decided to take the journey to the Americas.
Most of the rest of the story is true. There was indeed a Native American named Squanto that helped the pilgrims, and they did have a three-day feast of Thanksgiving with each other where they ate and hunted together. But you also might not know that the epidemic that killed Squanto’s people had come and gone before the pilgrims arrived. They had nothing to do with that slaughter that so many people attribute the first Thanksgiving with.
It is undeniable that our country has some corrupt, bloody history. But that first feast of the pilgrims was not symbolic of any of that. Even if we are wrong about the pilgrims, that doesn’t mean that the holiday is corrupt. For years, Thanksgiving has been celebrated by sitting down with family and friends for a meal to show gratitude and joy for each other’s company. It doesn’t matter if that feast actually took place or not. You can still give someone a gift on Christmas without believing in Christ or go trick-or-treating without believing in ghosts or spirits, so it is perfectly okay for you to give thanks this holiday season and share a good meal. Just don’t forget the pie.
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I’m Sick of Christmas
It feels like every year, Christmas season is being pushed earlier and earlier by businesses. Over the radio, through shop windows, and television screens. The relentless corporations are taking Christmas “spirit” and shoving it deep down our throats, attempting to take our money on the way out. It’s disgusting and so very exhausting.
Thanksgiving hadn’t even passed yet when I first started hearing Christmas music on the radio. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas music, but there are a few problematic things with it being played so early. First of all, during the week of Thanksgiving, I’m in Thanksgiving mode, not Christmas mode. I don’t want to be thinking about gift-giving and Jesus’ birth; that stuff is a month away. Let me focus on stuffing my face and being thankful. Having all the Christmas stuff pushed so early kills my Thanksgiving vibes. On top of this, having a whole straight month of Christmas music is tiring. I like Christmas music, but there isn’t a whole lot of variety, which would be fine if radio stations didn’t start playing it as early as before Thanksgiving. Hearing the same stupid songs for over four weeks makes them incredibly unenjoyable, and by the time Christmas rolls around, I’m already sick of it.
What makes all this worse is the sinister intentions behind all of it. The corporate pigs have Christmas season start early so that people buy all their Christmas gifts earlier, and when Christmas comes around, these people are more likely to go ahead and buy some more Christmas stuff anyways. It’s an evil, greedy practice that we ought to protest and hopefully put an end to.
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SalesGiving
Thanksgiving is supposed to be all about food, family, and gratitude. These days it seems like it is about scoping out Black Friday sales and camping out in front of Best Buy.
In the past few years it seems like companies have taken Black Friday sales to the extreme with most stores opening their doors for sale at 6 P.M. on Thanksgiving Day. I may be a traditionalist, but isn’t the point of a Black Friday sale that it takes place on Black Friday? In recent years, companies have started creeping back the hours; first moving to 4 A.M., then midnight, then they gave up all pretenses and opened at 8 P.M. Thanksgiving Day. However, it seems like they have gone as far as they can go because last year they started opening at 6 P.M. and this year will probably be the same.
Along with the encroaching Black Friday sales is the new practice of skipping over Thanksgiving entirely. Most stores do not even bother to wait until after Halloween to put out the Christmas decorations. I do not know many small children, but I imagine that, especially in Southern California where the leaves only change color from lack of water, the dearth of fall decorations might confuse them. In the monochromatic area of Southern California, the only semblance of fall we had were the Pumpkin Spice Lattes and fake leaf decorations.
I find it equally depressing that the holiday we decide to forget is the holiday made to celebrate thankfulness and family and instead we focus on holidays where we beg strangers for candy or we receive presents from family. Then on Thanksgiving, when we are finally forced to accept the holiday, we spend the day camping out in the cold so we can buy things at low prices.
Feel free to stand in line for stores decorated in tinsel, but at the very least remember that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about turkey, pumpkin pie, and celebrating our good fortune. -
A Thanksgiving Switch Up
This cranberry chutney is garnished with walnuts and whole cranberries. 
Don’t let their petite sizes fool you; these Cornish Game Hens are packed with flavor. 
This sticky rice stuffing is topped with freshly sliced scallions. 
Doesn’t this pumpkin cheesecake look good? Turkey
People often judge the entire Thanksgiving dinner based off of the turkey, which explains its central role at the table. Wow your guests and make them believe you are the next culinary prodigy by using these ideas:
Deep Fried Turkey
For a fairly simple twist on your baked turkey, deep fry it in the traditional redneck fashion. Popularized by the likes of Paula Deen and Guy Fieri, fried turkey has emerged as a popular new dish for families to serve at the Thanksgiving table. A recipe on the Food Network recommends cooking “the bird” for four hours to achieve a true five-star taste, so plan on setting aside a day with your deep fryer to ensure that the turkey is both crispy and moist.
Turducken
If you have any hardcore meat lovers in your family, consider making a turducken this Thanksgiving. The turducken features three meats in one: a 3-pound duck, a 4-pound chicken, and a 21-pound turkey, all tied together as one big bird. Eating this will make you feel like a bonafide glutton. So if you are in the mood to enter a food-induced coma on Thanksgiving, try a turducken and get your Tums ready— you’ll need it.
Tofurkey
For a real holiday turn around, surprise your guests with a deceivingly filling meatless dinner. Many companies like Tofurkey, Gardein, Quorn, and Magic Vegan offer meatless options to both meat lovers and meat shunners around the country. It is a healthier and more humane alternative than roast turkey, so you will feel good knowing that you saved one turkey from slaughter and cut back on three hundred calories in the process. For these reasons, do not be surprised if the tofurkey ends up tasting better than the actual bird!
Cornish Game Hens
Eat an entirely new bird species this Thanksgiving by giving Cornish Game Hens a try. A miniature version of the chicken America has grown to love, the Cornish Game Hen packs the same taste in a smaller package. Cooking multiple is an easier task than cooking turkey, as the hens roast faster than their larger counterpart. You can even use the same spice rubs and brines, like the one provided below. Make Thanksgiving less stressful this year and buy yourself some Cornish Game Hens!
Cranberry Sauce
Instead of serving cranberry sauce out of an aluminum can and heating it up before guests arrive, try mixing it up this time with these options:
Ginger Peach Sauce
Instead of the usual cranberry sauce to accompany other Thanksgiving dishes, a delicious Gingered Peach sauce is a great alternative for those who want to try something new. This sauce is made with sliced peaches that are processed till smooth. The addition of ginger adds a spicy contrast to the sweetness of the peach, and this flavor duo will rock your taste buds. Try it this Thanksgiving and prepare to be amazed.
Cranberry Chutney
What is a chutney, you might ask? Though the name seems exotic, it is nothing more than a combination of fruit and spices. Try adding an exotic twist to your bland cranberry sauce by making cranberry apple chutney. Sounds bizarre? Fear not, for the complex flavors of your chutney will make it a staple every Thanksgiving. Combining cranberries, raisins and apples with a variety of spices and simmering the concoction will give you a delicious result.
Cinnamon Apple
A cornucopia of praise will emanate from the Thanksgiving table with this sauce. This cinnamon apple cranberry sauce is prepared by first boiling cranberries, cranberry sauce and sugar together with a cinnamon stick. Once it boils, apples should be added and boiled until tender, serving to further enhance the sauce’s flavor. Add cornstarch until you reach the consistency of thinned-out jam. After refrigerating, the sauce will be a wonderful addition to the Thanksgiving table.
Onion Confit
Pronounced “con-fee,” the French word confit typically refers to food slowly cooked in fat. People often associate it with fine dining rather than a homestyle meal, so impress your guests this Thanksgiving with the knockout recipe provided below. Surprisingly, it is a cinch to make! By cooking cipollini onions on low heat, the natural sugars of the onions are released and impart a sweet taste, counteracted by the red wine vinegar. Give your guests another reason to swoon and prepare onion confit!
Pumpkin Pie
If there is one thing Americans can unanimously agree upon, it is the alluring decadence of Thanksgiving desserts. Among these seasonal confections, no one can forget pumpkin pie, an American staple at the Thanksgiving table, and its mouthwatering aroma. As timeless as it is, it can never hurt to spice things up with these new and unusual alternatives:
Pumpkin Cheesecake
This life-changing cheesecake is one of the few true competitors to pumpkin pie. Made with cinnamon graham cracker crust, canned pumpkin, and brown sugar-spiced caramel rum sauce, it is a great alternative for those who are not very fond of pies. Expect to enter a state of euphoric bliss by eating this delicious hybrid for dessert.
Bananas Foster Trifle
Walnut pound cake rich with brown sugar, creamy vanilla custard, cinnamon rum, and sticky meringue-coated bananas is just enough to send your taste buds to heaven. This trendy twist on pumpkin pie is a favorite among trifle and cake lovers alike. Although it is a calorie bomb, it is made within only two hours, which surely beats the three to four hours of the traditional pumpkin pie.
Vegan Pumpkin Pie Tarts
For those who desire a healthier alternative to pumpkin pie, this vegan alternative is a perfect match. These little tarts contain vegan butter, gluten-free flour, pumpkin puree, and vanilla glaze. When baked, they take on an airy consistency and resemble the most decadent pumpkin pie, but with half the calories. The pumpkin butter snuggled in the piecrust gives it a cute, mess-free appearance, making it a feast for both the mouth and the eyes. Eat healthy and deliciously by making these tarts for Thanksgiving!
Stuffing
Stuffing is like the sidekick of the turkey: a good one can make it seem better, and a horrible one will lead to severe consequences. Make your Thanksgiving table better by trying these ideas:
Mofongo Stuffing
Instead of stuffing your turkey with bread and onions, try this recipe! This new take on traditional stuffing is not for the faint of heart. Use unripe plantains, garlic, bacon, and ajíces dulces or sweet chili peppers for a Puerto Rican twist. Take a trip to San Juan by spicing up your lackluster stuffing this Thanksgiving.
Pear, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Stuffing
New things can be scary, but this culinary adventure might just have your guests (and your stomach) thanking you. It is the 21st century, and it is time to give your dated stuffing recipe a little variation! Tender pears, bread cubes, and toasty walnuts topped with blue cheese are baked to perfection in the recipe provided below. Your revamped stuffing will impress the entire table, and keep your family satisfied.
Kalua Stuffing
Baking in a oven is so overrated. If you’ve got shovels and a backyard, make your own oven in the comfort of your backyard! A traditional cooking method in Hawaiian culture that uses the imu, an underground oven. Use your traditional stuffing recipe and bake it in your imu till it is fully cooked. If you want, you can have a full blown luau and bake your turkey like that too! For those who are unadventurous, just add liquid smoke to your dishes to give it a Kalua feel. Digging a hole and cooking your stuffing in the backyard for hours is so much more interesting!
Sticky Rice Stuffing
Instead of a boring American style recipe for stuffing, try this delicious Chinese version. Naw Mai Fun is a sticky rice stuffing that is a staple for many Chinese-American families during Thanksgiving. It includes sticky rice, Chinese sausages, and chestnuts; think of this as a cultural twist to stuffing. It will leave your guests feeling like they just came from Beijing, not your Thanksgiving table!