Stop & Shop and Nassau County Host Pre-Thanksgiving Celebration and Turkey Pardoning

Fourth grade students from the Trinity Lutheran School in Hicksville shared in an 1860 era pre-Thanksgiving lunch hosted by Nassau County and Stop & Shop Supermarkets at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

The students witnessed Village Justice Jerome Reisman, pardon two live turkeys Arlene (right) and Harold (left). By the power vested in him by the State of New York, Justice Reisman guaranteed the turkeys and their descendants’ freedom, and life free of antibiotic feed.

Historic reenactors from that period served the youngsters a Thanksgiving meal prepared in a 19th century kitchen. The students dined on a turkey provided by Stop & Shop raised with antibiotic free feed, replicating the “unadulterated” turkey that previous generations enjoyed.

While antibiotics have been used since the 1940s and have led to a dramatic reduction in illness and death from infectious diseases, experts say their overuse in our food supply has resulted in drug resistance that threatens to reverse the medical advances of the last seventy years as antibiotic resistance becomes a major public health threat.

For that reason numerous health organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, Infectious Disease Society of America, and the World Health Organization have called for significant reductions in the use of antibiotics for animal food production.

Educators from Trinity Lutheran explained to the youngsters the potential health issues that humans face from consuming poultry and meat that were raised on feed which contain antibiotics.