In honor of Thanksgiving, we wanted to highlight this 1967 holiday issue of the Intercom, Duke Medicine’s primary news publication from 1953 to 1986. The cover story, “All This to Cook the Turkey,” gives a behind-the-scenes look at the dietetics staff’s work to prepare a special “home cooked” Thanksgiving meal for patients. The amount of planning, preparation, and food involved may surprise you. Check out a few highlights below, or click on the image to enlarge and read the full article.
1967 Thanksgiving dinner at Duke University Hospital:
- All 246 dietetics staff pitched in to help prepare meals for 1,000 individuals
- Preparation began several days before Thanksgiving, with a dietitian creating a special menu with patient health, nutrition, and dietary restrictions in mind
- Dietetics staff acquired lots of food for the meal, including 900 lbs of turkey, 120 qts of pumpkin, 20 qts of whipping cream, and 2 lbs of pumpkin pie spice
- On Thanksgiving Day, meal preparation began at 5:00 am with staff making the cranberry sauce. Later in the morning, turkeys went into 12 ovens, while dressing baked in 6 other ovens
- For dinner, patients were served turkey, oyster dressing, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, and pumpkin pie