Our team of staff and volunteers at Food Banks Mississauga, as well as the food bank visitors we serve, is made up of a diverse group of people from various cultural, religious, and regional backgrounds. We asked a number of them about their Thanksgiving traditions and how those traditions are influenced by their backgrounds. This is what they shared:
Upasana, Donor Care & Database Specialist
Upasana didn’t grow up celebrating Thanksgiving, but when she moved to Canada from India, her and her family began to celebrate the tradition.
“Here our friends are our extended family. Every year we take turns to host a get-together. It’s also the time of our biggest celebration (Bengali, Hindu) Durga Puja and Diwali. Sometimes the dates coincide. So it’s like a double celebration of two different festivals. We do potluck sometimes. Turkey roasting. We play games, share good memories and thoughts, and decorate our houses and dining rooms.”
Upasana shared she roasts her turkey with “a twist of Indian spices” to bring a sense of home to the meal. Sometimes the Thanksgiving meal will also feature Indian appetizers, like samosas, and Indian desserts.
“I really like the word Thanksgiving. In our culture, it’s not a common word. When I immigrated here, it’s a nice thing. Thanksgiving means being respectful and thankful to everyone.”
Brian, Social Work Student Placement
Brian celebrates Thanksgiving with family.
“Thanksgiving makes me think of family time. At the end of the day, that’s who you want to spend time with the most. My mom is huge on family.”
His mom and aunt will alternate between who hosts, but every year the meal consists of turkey and the traditional fixings – and Caldo Verde, a Portuguese soup with collard greens and potatoes.
Julie, Development Coordinator
“Thankgiving reminds me of the time I moved here from Ukraine in 2003. This was a new celebration to us and it was really nice learning about the Canadian culture.”
In addition to enjoying the turkey with all the stuffings, Julie acknowledges her Ukrainian heritage by contributing a Roshen Kyiv cake to the dessert portion of the meal. A standard for birthdays and holidays, Kyiv cake consists of two layers of meringue with hazelnuts covered in a chocolate glaze, and filled with a buttercream-like filling.
Kyiv Cake
Maria, Donor Care Coordinator
Thanksgiving for Maria always includes her Italian mother-in-law’s traditional potato souffle with bechamel sauce, mozzarella, and loads of butter! A family tradition.
Daisy, Director of Marketing & Communications
Every year, Daisy and her friends celebrate Friendsgiving where they, and their “new little families” gather around and enjoy a full table of delicious food. Daisy also celebrates the holiday with her family, sharing:
“My father-in-law always insists on cooking this giant turkey even though there aren’t that many of us. So there is always a ton of turkey leftovers. What he’s taken to doing every year now is using the leftover turkey and making spring rolls with them! They’re now my favourite spring rolls! It’s a little bit of Chinese influence for Thanksgiving.”
A Chinese-Canadian Thanksgiving
Jim, Food Bank 2 Home Volunteer
Jim celebrates Thanksgiving with his family – his wife, adult kids, three teenage grandsons, and all the pets! They share a ‘classic’ thanksgiving meal, with all the turkey and fixings.
Jordana*, Food Bank Visitor
*name has been changed
When Jordana was asked about her Thanksgiving traditions, she enthusiastically shared how her Caribbean culture influences how her family celebrates the holiday.
“We need Caribbean food. We like the turkey. We like the chicken. We like the fish. We like the oxtail. We like the goat. We curry the goat, you know, like those are the kind of stuff that we cook. Those are just meat. But we have the beans, the peas, the rice and peas. We bake Jamaican black cake.”
“[We have a] big meal for Thanksgiving. That’s when we all that we can buy, you know, meat and stuff when we cook and have a good celebration. And we bless the food and bless the Giver and bless the hands that make it. That’s what we do and bless the body that’s about to receive it. Amen!”
Thanks to you, Jordana is able to access many of the ingredients she uses to make her Caribbean-Canadian Thanksgiving dinner from her neighbourhood food bank.
Jenna, Marketing Coordinator
“Thanksgiving growing up wasn’t a big thing for my family,” Jenna shared, but things have changed since she became an adult and moved from Nova Scotia to Ontario several years ago. Last year, she celebrated Thanksgiving three times over the course of the month of October! She and her husband invited her family-in-law over to celebrate with a Filipino Canadian potluck of cooked ham, mixed vegetables, pancit, pork menudo, and rice. They also hosted a Friendsgiving potluck with bread stuffing, potato casserole, baked mac and cheese, and delicious pies for dessert. Lastly, they were hosted by Jenna’s sister for a delicious meal that included their grandmother’s potato dressing recipe, a Nova Scotia favourite with a special ingredient called summer savoury.
“If you’re from the East Coast, you’ll likely know what that is!”
A Filipino-Canadian Thanksgiving
Meghan, Chief Executive Officer
Meghan shared that she celebrates with her family. She’ll bring the box stuffing and her mother-in-law’s fancy stuffing recipe, her dad will make her late Nana’s cranberry relish.
“We always go around the table and everyone shares what they are thankful for. Last year we wrote them on paper leaves and put them on a tree branch centrepiece I made with clothespins.”
The celebration ends with the best tradition of all: everyone fills their own tupperware containers with leftovers to take home to enjoy! Two years ago, Meghan shares:
“I forgot and had to take a full turkey dinner home in a large Ziplock bag!”
Bethel, Office & Community Support Coordinator
Bethel shared that Thanksgiving is also pretty new to her. She arrived in Canada two years ago from Nigeria, but last year was her first experience with Thanksgiving.
“We were hosted by two families. Friday, we were hosted by a Nigerian-Canadian family and we had the Nigerian jollof rice and the turkey. On Saturday, we were hosted by our white friends from church and we had turkey with mashed potatoes, some salad, cranberry sauce, and sour cream sauce with coconut and marshmallows [ambrosia salad]. And the two families had something in common, we said what we are grateful for and what we hoped the new year would be and we said some prayers, and that was how we spent Thanksgiving!
This year, I plan to host a new Nigerian family that just landed here two weeks ago as permanent residents. And then on the Sunday, I plan to host our friends from church that hosted us last year. I plan to do the same kinds of things [as last year]: cook the Nigerian jollof, the Nigerian way. There’s never an event in a Nigerian family without Nigerian jollof! But for my white friends, because their spice taste palette is different, I plan to do the same jollof but without pepe and very mild so they can enjoy it.”
A Nigerian-Canadian Thanksgiving
Show your gratitude this Thanksgiving by giving back!
As you prepare to gather around your Thanksgiving table, surrounded by loved ones, share your thanks by providing the same warmth and comfort to neighbours living with food insecurity with a gift to our Thanksgiving Drive.
