Our History
The Thanksgiving Basket program has its roots with the arrival of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace at Sacred Heart Hospital in 1936. From the beginning, the Sisters were dedicated to helping the hungry and those without.
Through the early years, the Sisters provided meals to employees and patients’ families in need. For a while, the Sisters even provided lunches out the back door of the kitchen to travelers seeking work in the fields of the Willamette Valley. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Sr. Monica Heeran and Sr. Aileen Trainor carried on this practice of providing meals as they saw the need.
When Sr. Edith Rief arrived in 1979, she began to provide Christmas meals to members of the Sacred Heart family, but soon concluded that the greater need came at Thanksgiving. Sr. Edith saw that there were members of the Sacred Heart family who could not afford a traditional holiday meal. The effort started small, tapping volunteers and a few donors.
Through the years the PeaceHealth Sacred Heart family has responded by giving more to help these families enjoy a holiday meal. Departments step up to provide a part of the meal through food donations, and individuals have given cash donations to help purchase the turkeys and fresh vegetables needed to complete the meal.
This Thanksgiving season we encourage you to help carry on this important and time-honored tradition to provide for and nominate others who might not otherwise enjoy a holiday meal with their families. Help them create the kind of memories that make Thanksgiving so special to all of us!
