24 November 2025

Thanksgiving week. I’ve been bombarded with Black Friday ads for a while now. It just seems so ironic. We have a day devoted to gratitude for our bounty; then we go out and buy a whole bunch of new stuff!

So first, I’m sharing some tips for avoiding the hype. Remember…scarcity is just marketing!

Pause before you click. Do I really need it? Will this item bring long-term joy? 

No new stuff. Can I get it from friends, relatives or a Buy Nothing group? Might I find a better quality version second-hand at a thrift shop?

Mind the marketing. Would I still want it if it wasn't on sale? Does it align with my values?

I confess. I have a storage unit where I pay money every month to keep stuff that I haven’t looked at in years. But this week, at hubby’s urging, I decided to do something about it. My aunt’s old Singer sewing machine was taking up valuable real estate - not gathering dust, but not fulfilling its destiny either.

When my aunt passed away, we rescued it to our basement. Since that time, we have used it plenty. I repaired some clothing and sewed Halloween costumes. My son made a crash pad for climbing and his first mushroom “grow room”, not an easy feat with thick plastic! Then we moved and it went into storage.

I remembered from a previous Earth Day Festival that the Community Center of Northern Westchester upcycles clothing to sell, so I thought maybe they could make use of my vintage sewing machine. Yes, they knew who to pass it on to! And what a treat for me to visit the Community Studio, full of amazing and unique handmade gifts (and no Black Friday pressure!).

I do like to hold on to things (I’m a just-in-case kind of gal), but it feels really good to share them. If you think about it, most of what we need is probably already on this Earth - it’s just in the back of someone’s closet, basement, garage or storage unit (according to Self Storage Almanac, there is over 2 billion square feet of storage space in the US).

It’s kind of like that with food. Farmers in the US produce nearly 4000 calories per person - almost twice what we need - but a third of that gets lost along the supply and consumption chain. But here’s the crazy part…it takes about 10 calories of fossil fuels to produce and transport one calorie of food in the Standard American Diet.

If you’re interested in reducing your own impact and making this year more of a Plantsgiving, don’t miss this great cookbook from Bedford 2030.

We’re wasting food and energy, and many of these “food” calories are the opposite of nourishing. Food is a global economy, but we’re not even coming close to producing the amount of vegetables and fruits we would need if we actually followed recommended dietary patterns (the research indicates at least five servings per day, in case you were wondering).

A lot of the “food” we grow is actually biofuel and animal feed.

I’m encouraged to hear about farmers moving toward a more regenerative system. We can’t afford to sustain current methods; it’s time we give back. But listening to this week’s Resilience Gone Wild (highly recommend you listen, and before Thanksgiving) reminded me that nature gives us models for reciprocal, and even synergistic, relationships. The three sisters - corn, beans, squash - work together in ways that benefit all. Our larger and more complex ecosystems - like the permaculture in The Biggest Little Farm - experience even more synergy.

Conventional agriculture has done a really good job of centralizing our food system in the hands of few farmers (earning pennies on the dollar compared to 50 years ago) and even fewer food manufacturers (earning profits by “adding value” to perfectly good food and making it…less healthy). Nature doesn’t externalize costs - contributions are mutually beneficial.

This Friday, I urge you to continue the Thanksgiving adventure, be grateful for the extra day off (if you have one) and think about ways to share in community. It’s amazing what comes back to you when your energy goes into giving rather than grasping. I already have an idea for a “soup trade” I’d like to organize for the next Building Healthy Communities Westchester event. More details to come…

Wishing you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!