[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18030-18031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                SERVING FELLOW AMERICANS ON THANKSGIVING

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, with Thanksgiving approaching, let us think 
about our fellow Americans and ask ourselves the question, what can we 
do to serve them this coming week and into the future?
  Average incomes for Americans, for the average family, have gone down 
about 6.7 percent, and we know poverty rates have risen 15 percent. For 
all of those listening today as we look across our country, think about 
what you can do this week and every week to help our food banks that 
are short on supplies across our country. Every class, every religious 
organization, every person can do something extra to help this

[[Page 18031]]

week to give every American a good Thanksgiving.
  Think about how you can help a local feeding kitchen. Think about how 
you might challenge your sports team to go glean in the fields and to 
collect, if you live in a part of the country where agriculture exists, 
the extra cabbage, the extra apples that are there and will be plowed 
under if you don't pick them.
  Across our country this is a year when Americans can say to one 
another, Happy Thanksgiving, we believe in you, we want to help you 
through these difficult times. It reaches the true heart of the 
American people, the people full of goodness who know what's right to 
do. And let's give every American a happy Thanksgiving every day. God 
bless America.

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