The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Talking turkey in a pandemic
Ellen Liskov of Milford and her family won’t sit at a common table in the same house on Thanksgiving, but they’ll keep some of the tradition alive by making the same recipes as always, then swapping them outdoors before returning to their homes.
Liskov said she’ll make turkey and gravy, her boyfriend will chop celery and onions so he can say he made the stuffing; her mom in Trumbull will make cranberry sauce and an appetizer; her aunt in Hamden will make
sweet potato soup while her cousin in Orange will make kugel and the cousin’s husband will make a family coleslaw recipe.
Liskov, a registered dietitian at Yale New Haven Hospital, isn’t taking any chances with the pandemic — her family visits each other outside every week, but they haven’t been in each other’s homes since it all began in March.
“Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. This is the first time in 50 years of memories that my family has not been able to gather,” Liskov said. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing, this pandemic.”
COVID-19 has turned the holiday upside down for families who typically gather in homes, as well as individuals and families who attend community meals — most of them canceled or amended this year. It’s also not a good time for food banks or even for the big turkey companies.
Families, businesses and those who serve the needy all have had to get creative to re-frame the classic holiday.
Nearly all of Connecticut’s 3.5 million residents now live in communities that are considered “red alert” zones for the virus, a metric based on the number of new daily cases per 100,000 people over 14 days.
Gov. Ned Lamont is warning residents to avoid large Thanksgiving gatherings, and instead limit them to those in the household, and to avoid traveling.
“Keep it small, keep it to your family, that way next Thanksgiving can be really good,” Lamont said.
COVID-19 affecting all aspects of Thanksgiving
Those who help the needy and the lonely see the need is higher than ever in these difficult economic times, but requirements for
social distancing have changed the way services will be delivered. Many holiday community meals where people once found fellowship will become curbside “to go” affairs.
Kate Lombardo, executive director of Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County, which serves Stamford, Norwalk, Wilton, New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich, said turkeys have been hard to come by this year, but so far they’ve managed by buying them and through donations. As the holiday approaches they could use about 500 more and, as always, more food of all kinds, including breakfast cereal. Contributions can be dropped off at 451 Glenbrook Road, Stamford.
Smaller turkeys or hens are in short supply, she said, so most have been large turkeys.
“Everybody will be making turkey soup ’til February,” she said.
Even the big turkey companies have had to make adjustments, although most of their production for the year and store orders were calculated and underway before the pandemic. Since fewer small turkeys than large ones are produced each year, that will mean lots of leftovers, experts said.
“COVID-19 has created a lot of uncertainty for our customers and consumers for the upcoming holidays,” said Daniel Sullivan, spokesman for Cargill Corp., a major producer of whole turkeys and turkey products recognized by consumers as Honeysuckle White, Shady Brook Farms and Honest Turkey brands.
“The most common theme among consumers in our most recent pulse is the desire to be with family, feel normal and make the holiday special. A majority are planning a traditional Thanksgiving, but it could be a smaller gathering limited to immediate family and/or household,” he said.
The Butterball company, which
expects record phone calls to its Butterball Turkey Talk-Line this year, determined through surveys there will be more gatherings driven by celebrations with only immediate family, hence more firsttime cooks than ever, a spokeswoman for Butterball said.
Typically, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line assists more than 100,000 people each year with turkey cooking advice, and fields nearly 15,000 inquiries on Thanksgiving Day.
Altered Thanksgiving traditions for safety
Annie Candela, 42, of East Haven said her big family of aunts, uncles and cousins normally would gather at her grandmother’s house in Branford. Instead, they will leave the grandparents alone and Candela, her sister and four others will get food to go from a nice restaurant near her sister’s house in New Haven.
In previous months they were “weighing it all out,” said Candela, an administrative assistant in a health care setting, but, “As much as you want to get together, you can have a family get together now and have an ICU Christmas.”
“It stinks,” Candela said. “You have to make do with what you have.”
Andrea Gaetano Polinsky of Woodbridge, who comes from a big, Italian family where usually there are 25 people celebrating together, said she’s definitely going to miss everyone, as Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday.
Instead, they will do small gatherings, each with their own families. It will be her, her cousin from North Haven and their spouses, along with the couples’ three kids.
“We’re still keeping it traditional but limited,” she said. “It’s the one holiday when you can be together and just enjoy each other’s company.”
Butterball collected data on this unusual Thanksgiving year
The Butterball company’s survey shows:
⏩ 87 percent of consumers say they are committed to celebrating Thanksgiving and they will make the meal happen, even if the celebration looks different this year.
⏩ 76 percent of the group said Thanksgiving dinner will help them reestablish a sense of normalcy.
⏩ 77 percent are looking for ways to make Thanksgiving easier or simpler, including 55 percent who are open to premade sides.
32 percent of those who typically celebrate Thanksgiving are considering outdoor festivities for social distancing.
⏩ 17 percent said they learned to cook better while they’ve been at home and feel more confident to cook a meal this Thanksgiving.
⏩ Although gatherings will be smaller, 76 percent plan to serve the same size turkey or larger than
last year.
Cargill offers alternatives to whole turkey
While Butterball is counting on people buying big turkeys for the smaller gatherings and having lots of leftovers, Sullivan said Cargill sees the need to offer several options.
He said the company knows that cooking a holiday meal “can be daunting and time consuming for many people” and many prefer to have their meal fully prepared. Sullivan said the company’s restaurant partners are preparing for smaller, in-house traffic and stronger to-go sales through full meal kits with whole or half turkeys, as well as bone-in and boneless breast meat options.
“Similar to the uncertainty in retail, our goal is to remain as flexible as possible for our partners to drive the most value with their consumers and deliver an outstanding holiday season for all,” Sullivan said.