Let's Put the Giving Back in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year as it brings together family, fellowship and feasting (and yes, the 4th "f" and a very important one- football). Most importantly, though, Thanksgiving reminds me to count my blessings - and I hope it does the same for you.

Thanks to our farmers and ranchers, America is home to the safest, most abundant and most affordable food supply in the world. Here in Texas, we've had the added good fortune of a statewide economy that's weathered the national recession better than most other states. While America remains the land of plenty and Texas stands tall in many respects, our state and nation still struggle with the issue of hunger.

Just last week, a United States Department of Agriculture report found that food insecurity ratings in America remain the highest they've been in the 15 years since the government began tracking such statistics. Those statistics translate to 17.4 million U.S. households that do not have consistent, dependable access to sufficient food.

In Texas, the news is not much better. With more than 17 percent of Texas households considered food insecure – a rate that is significantly higher than the national average – Texas ranks among the top states for food insecurity. With a $100 billion agriculture industry hard at work each day, Texas is a powerhouse of productivity, which makes our hunger situation unacceptable and even more troubling.

As you gather to feast with family and friends this Thanksgiving, please be mindful of our hungry neighbors. Consider donating time, money or food to your local food bank. Thanksgiving often prompts a wave of welcome goodwill, but hunger persists 365 days each year. Let today be the day you put the giving back in Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving, Texas.

Be Thankful

Any way you slice it, 2009 has had more than the usual share of obstacles and high hurdles: exceptional drought in most parts of Texas followed by flooding in the remaining areas, high unemployment, high foreclosures and bank failures, mounting national debt that threatens our worldwide competitive ability, historically low overall economic activity for our state and nation, the tragic loss of life at Ft. Hood and family members with serious health problems.

It has been such a tough year in so many ways that this Thanksgiving, do you know what I am going to do? Well, I am going to be thankful.

I am thankful for God’s blessings. I am thankful for my family. I am thankful to be a Texan. I am thankful our team at the Texas Department of Agriculture has an opportunity to partner with so many terrific individuals and organizations throughout our great state. I am thankful that even with all that I don’t like and want to change, I live in a country where each individual has opportunity and freedom. I am thankful the Aggies have the home field advantage for this year’s football game with the Longhorns and am thankful my Longhorn friends don’t rub in the last few years (too much). I am thankful I caught an old cow we’ve been trying to pen for over two years! Finally, I am thankful for each new day we are given to make it better than yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

History Serves as Guide on Thanksgiving Day

As our state and nation pause to celebrate a day of thanks, we all remember the story we’ve been told of the first Thanksgiving. However, it was George Washington who made the first Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, setting the stage for this annual holiday. Looking back to what our founding fathers were thankful for helps put all of our blessings into perspective.

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

                                                                                          G. Washington