Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the Bleeding Heartland community. I’ve posted a few holiday-related links below.

About 85 percent of Americans have this to be thankful for: they never have to wonder where their next meal is coming from. The other 15 percent aren’t so lucky. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest report on food insecurity found that “in 2010, 17.2 million households in America had difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources.” Click here for lots of graphs and statistics from that report.

Households with children, and particularly single-parent households with children, are more likely to suffer from food insecurity. Some school districts or food banks send backpacks filled with food home with “chronically hungry elementary school students from low-income households who are at risk of hunger over the weekend when free school meals are unavailable.” Every school district should have that kind of program. Governor Terry Branstad’s education reform blueprint says nothing about food, nutrition or hunger. That’s unfortunate, because hunger and poor nutrition have been shown to affect children’s ability to learn.

While some people have trouble getting the nourishment they need, many Americans will waste a tremendous amount of food this weekend. I enjoyed this diary with 10 tips for “reducing food waste during the holiday season.” Last year I posted four ways to make soup from Thanksgiving leftovers. I mentioned some other ideas for holiday leftovers here.

Ever wonder how turkey became the traditional American Thanksgiving entree? Jill Richardson researched that topic last year and posted her findings here.

This is an open thread.