A Recession-proof Thanksgiving

Southern Ontario hasn't experienced anything like this in decades. Of the province's 240,000 job losses, that vast majority come from this region. Tens of thousands of individuals and their troubled families move from termination, to Employment Insurance to social assistance - a mass of humanity on the move while yet rooted in their respective communities and institutions. Despair is now setting in, and with a federal government seemingly oblivious to the sheer urgency of the situation, the dark clouds keep encroaching. In my home town of London, it was just announced yesterday that the unemployment rate had just gone up from 11.1% by another point. A part of Canada that was once the driving engine of much of its productivity is on the ropes while Ottawa occupies itself with rank partisanship.It's in such a bleak setting that the London Food Bank holds its 21st annual Thanksgiving Food Drive this week. As co-director, I've endeavored to keep our volunteers and donating public inspired despite the gloom. Yet with the number of families we assist increasing by over 25% (2400 to 3200 per month, or 8,000 people) in the last number of months, it's a difficult task.But something is happening in London, and likely in other parts of Ontario as well. Citizens are giving as never before. Corporations are collecting resources to see us through the crisis. People are flooding into the food bank all this Thanksgiving weekend to volunteer. Incredibly, they have matched their "let's get it done" attitude with a sense of pride and joy at working together that has transformed a desperately needed food drive into a community celebration.Families who have recently overcome their struggles to keep the Imagine Adoption agency open are lining up with everyone else to sort the hampers, partially empowered by their own victory over incredible odds. John, a good friend of ours who is waging his own struggle against cancer, has just dropped off substantial cheque from his service club, acknowledging that people in pain are acutely qualified to intervene in the miseries of others. My firefighter friends, who I worked with for almost 30 years, are standing by the doors of the firehalls to collect food donations. Recipients of food bank donations are standing side-by-side with those who have donated to sort the supplies. Families have opted to spend their holiday weekend for the sake of other struggling families. Three year-olds are working with Mom and Dad to separate the spaghetti noodles from canned goods. Volunteer seniors are collecting food from overflowing donations bins at the grocery stores.Sensing the urgency, the media has provided exceptional coverage, getting the word out. The University of Western Ontario Mustang football team is helping with collections. Schools are having their own drives. Senior's homes residents are bending aging backs to load their donations into food bank vans. Churches, mosques and temples are living out their own sermons and homilies in acts of humanitarian faith. From every part of the city, all these individuals and groups make their way into the hearts and minds of struggling families - not with mere words alone but with deeds that are staggering.This is my community.  This is London, Ontario. A spirit like this is what keeps me at it in Ottawa even as I struggle with the sheer hyper-partisanship of parties and MPs who should know better. My community, beset and beleaguered with its worse crisis in decades by a recession that has been brutal, has shown the rest of the country that even the worst economic crisis since the Depression can't get to its spirit - it's recession-proof. Happy Thanksgiving to all from a community that has pulled from its own hard-earned resources to remind us what made this country great in the first place.