Become a Holiday Meal Drive 2026 Sponsor

The Other Side of Gratitude

Every Thanksgiving, we talk about gratitude. We gather around our tables, share a meal, look at the people we love, and give thanks for what we have.

But gratitude has another side.

It is recognizing that the distance between having enough and needing help is sometimes much smaller than we think.

A lost job. An unexpected bill. A rent increase. An illness in the family. A car that suddenly needs repair. Any one of those things can change what a family can afford to put on the table.

And for families already trying to make ends meet in Deep East Oakland, where access to fresh, affordable food remains a challenge and the cost of everyday necessities continues to climb, Thanksgiving dinner can become one more expense they simply cannot absorb.

That family could be any of us.

That is what makes the Holiday Meal Drive so meaningful.

Every year, something special happens here. People who may never meet one another come together for one reason. To make sure another family has enough.

Someone gives 75 dollars to feed a family of four. Someone purchases turkeys. Someone donates fresh vegetables. Someone brings their coworkers. Someone spends the day before Thanksgiving boxes packing meals. Someone arrives early to set up and stays late to clean up.

And somewhere in East Oakland, a parent gets to walk through their front door carrying a turkey, fresh vegetables, and everything needed to prepare a Thanksgiving meal.

Their children do not have to know what that meal cost. They do not have to know what their parent was worried about the night before.

They simply get to sit down together and have Thanksgiving.

Last year, our community made that possible for more than 900 families. This year, we want to reach 1,400.

This is also why the East Oakland Bridges Coalition exists.

No single organization can meet every need in our community. But when each of us gives what we have, whether that is money, food, volunteers, relationships, time, or talent, something much larger becomes possible.

Many hands. Many resources. One mission.

There are plenty of places in life where the question is, "What can I get?"

The Holiday Meal Drive gives us one day to ask a different question.

"What can I give?"

Perhaps that is what gratitude really asks of us. To recognize what we have, to understand that circumstances can change for any family, and when we are in a position to reach across the table, to do it.

This Thanksgiving, we hope you will reach across the table with us.

Click the Become a Sponsor button and help us make sure 1,400 East Oakland families have something to gather around this Thanksgiving.

Because sometimes the most meaningful way to say, "I am thankful," is to make sure someone else has a reason to be thankful too.