The traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. It’s a favorite tradition, especially among American people who like to eat. And when you throw in the obligatory football game, (go Broncos) everybody wins (except the Raiders). Of course, you can’t have a Thanksgiving dinner at school, since you aren’t in school on Thanksgiving Day, and even if you were, you’d go home before then. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a Thanksgiving lunch, now does it?

Of course not. The school cafeteria has provided a Thanksgiving lunch on the day before Thanksgiving for several years. They have even extended a quiet invitation to the parents or guardians of the students to come and eat with them, since this could be their only opportunity to do so. It provides a good chance for bonding between students and said guardians.

Christina Miner likes the idea. She’s on her second year of work at Dysart, working the cash register during the lunches. “Thanksgiving,” she says, “is a time family gathering, and a time to give thanks.” And I’d have to agree. It’s very charitable of her to spend her valuable time to give something of that experience to us.

The idea is a grand one, but does the food match up? Let’s have a look at what’s on the menu: not just chicken, but turkey! Mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, a dinner roll, and even cranberry sauce. Vegetarian? Load up on green beans and corn, there’s plenty of both. And unlike those miserable days where you just can’t force down a bite, the food is actually pretty high quality, even to my picky tongue. Definitely worth leaving the sack lunch at home for.

Looks like the cafeteria’s looking after Thanksgiving pretty well. Rather like the Native Americans took care of the pilgrims almost four hundred years ago. Now if only they also included a couple of those delectable rice puddings with the main course of the meal. That’s really the only negative thing I can say about the Thanksgiving lunch this year: the desert. It’s not that the apple crumble is bad, but I just don’t care for baked fruit. Nevertheless, the Dysart cafeteria does an admirable job of keeping the masses fed on the days before the holidays.