When most people think of Thanksgiving, they imagine the giant turkey sitting in the center of the family dinner table. For countless years the turkey was, and still is, the symbol of the November holiday.
However, vegetarians have to take a different approach to celebrating. English teacher Jennifer MacDonald’s journey to become a vegetarian was a process, but she is now familiar with preparing meatless meals for the holidays.
Growing up in an Italian family, MacDonald ate many courses of meat. She decided to give up meat after a visit to a petting zoo with her family when she heard her uncle mooing at a calf. “He said, ‘We are going to eat you tonight!’ ” MacDonald recalled.
She was unaware that what she saw at the petting zoo was something she and her family ate on a regular basis. Her uncle explained to her, “You love them [calves], veal cutlets, you eat them all the time.”
At the age of just seven, MacDonald stopped eating red meat. She continued eating chicken, however, until the age of 24 and she stopped eating fish at 30. From then on, McDonald vowed to stay away from meat. “I couldn’t change any laws. I tried to get a petition, but nobody was really listening, so I thought the least that I could do is stop eating meat” she said.
Along with McDonald in taking a stand against meat are junior Elise Mollica and senior Annie Lopez. They gave up meat for reasons similar to that of MacDonald. “I always felt bad about eating animals in general,” Mollica said.
When Mollica first decided to become a vegetarian, it was meant to be for one week only, just to see how things would go. After the week was up, Mollica realized that she wanted to make a lifestyle change. “It wasn’t that hard and then I read a book about it, so that made me want to keep going.”
Lopez also read up on what occurs in meat production, which left a huge impact on how she felt about eating meat. “I got to the point where I didn’t even enjoy the taste of most meat anymore, so going full-out veggie wasn’t a huge step.”
Mollica’s determination of fending off meat inspired her family as well. About a year after becoming a vegetarian, her mom and sister followed. With support from her family, avoiding meat is not much of a problem for Mollica.
When Thanksgiving comes around, Mollica doesn’t make a big deal out of finding something else to eat. “Turkey was never really my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Last year I had tofurky, and it was kind of weird, but it was fine,” Mollica said. She usually just sticks with eating lots of stuffing and pumpkin pie.
For Lopez, she doesn’t need turkey because she has something else to look forward to. “My mom makes good vegetable casserole,” she said “but I mainly eat more vegetables than what would be considered normal, and potatoes and other side dishes.”
Even though McDonald has been a long-time vegetarian, her choice to not eat turkey on Thanksgiving still causes trouble within her family occasionally. She explained, “Every Thanksgiving, my grandfather says, ‘Why can’t you eat this with the rest of us? What are you doing?’ ”
As an alternative to the typical holiday meal, MacDonald eats beans, soy products, and a product called quorn, which, even though it looks different, tastes much like the taste of chicken.
There are some people that don’t understand the choice to become vegetarians. MacDonald said, “The biggest problem I have is that people get angry with me and they yell at me.”
Even though it is difficult for vegetarians to get support, McDonald and students believe it is the right thing to do. “Vegetarianism is my way to help the environment on a small scale, because there are large amounts of pollution that come with the meat production industry”, Lopez said.
