Thanksgiving is more than giving thanks: Foods of all sorts are essential for a memorable meal.

This Thanksgiving, turkeys will be consumed throughout America, but other dishes and traditions liven up many people's meals.

Before Thanksgiving Break, Penn State students, borough council members, a Penn State linebacker, and even Mayor Welch described their plans for the holiday.

Bill Welch

State College mayor

Welch's eldest daughter lives next door to the mayor, but will spend this Thanksgiving in Minneapolis. In fact, Welch said his whole family will be scattered this year. But Thanksgiving isn't usually a big deal for the family, he said.

"We save [our] strength and food and money for Christmas," he said.

For the past five years or so, the Welch family has gone out for Thanksgiving dinners; they "just float [and] try new places," Welch said.

But Welch reminisced about one "big, fancy home-cooked" Thanksgiving.

He said everything was going smoothly until his daughter, Jess, and he teamed up to make the gravy.

In this case, the gravy was a "cement-like substance from which we could not extract the spoon," Welch said. "Thank heaven it solidified before we ate it."

Another Thanksgiving error in the Welch house was forgetting to remove the giblet package from the turkey until the bird was already cooked.

"I will confess that my knowledge of anatomy of turkeys is limited," Welch said.

Elizabeth Goreham

State College Borough Council president

Goreham spent 10 years as a vegetarian, but she said her body began craving meats like Thanksgiving turkey.

"I could feel the craving for meat so I had a piece of chicken and then I realized, well, it tasted good," Goreham said. "I do love vegetables; I don't eat a lot of meat. I feel that everybody has to eat what they need to feel healthy."

In her vegetarian phase, Goreham tried Tofurky, which she said tasted like a basketball.

"It was awful," she said. "Actually it's a brand name. It was not delicious."

Goreham's Thanksgiving meal, for which she does most of the cooking, accommodates her husband's gluten allergy by using recipes like polenta (Italian cornmeal) stuffing.

"We make it with all the stuffing ingredients, and it's really good," she said.

David Cranage

Associate professor of hospitality management

Cranage has to adjust his Thanksgiving meal because he is diabetic. Though the meal is pretty traditional, substitutions are made that won't make the food "drastically different," he said.

Cranage said his family often entertains using recipes low in sugar and cholesterol.

"At the end we didn't even notice the difference," he said.

Some adjustments include crustless pumpkin pie made with sugar substitute, stuffing made with light bread, mashed sweet potatoes made with a brown sugar substitute and homemade cranberry sauce with less sugar than the canned kind.

Michelle Tam

(senior-food science)

Tam said though she didn't always have a traditional holiday meal on the last Thursday of November, nowadays she's become the "man of the house."

She said on Thanksgiving, she is in charge of cutting the turkey at her friend's house. Tam's "slight culinary background" helps her succeed at the task, she said.

"I know my meat," she said.

Since their parents don't celebrate American holidays, Tam and her sisters spend Thanksgiving at their friend's house.

Samantha Palin

(senior-food science)

While meat is often what's for dinner on Thanksgiving, Samantha Palin's meal involves a different sort: mincemeat. Mincemeat is a mixture of dried fruit, spices and meat, often used as pie filling.

Palin's parents are English, and mini mince pies are served for Thanksgiving dessert, Palin said. The recipe takes about three hours to complete.

"The pastry takes a while," she said.

Debie Blair

(senior-food science)

Debie Blair's holiday meal doesn't discriminate against species; in fact, salmon is served as a side dish.

While the meal has traditional turkey, Blair's Venezuelan family enjoys fish and quiche as side dishes, she said. Her mother is in charge of the meal.

"She asks me to [help] but always yells at me because I don't do things right," Blair said. "By right, I mean her way."

Tyrell Sales

Penn State Linebacker

Sales (senior-media studies) will spend Thanksgiving in Butler County, Pa. (north of Pittsburgh) at his aunt's house, where "everybody in the family is known for a certain dish," he said.

"It's one of the few meals of the year I get to have a good meal, so I take advantage of it," he said.

The family, including Sales' little sister and about eight cousins, gathers around 10 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving to begin preparing the meal, and everyone watches a movie together at night. But Sales' role isn't in the kitchen.

"I keep the kids sane while everybody's cooking," he said.

Sam Merritt

Hospitality overall for Thon 2009

Each year, Thon's Hospitality captains get together for a Thanksgiving dinner, but this year's will be after Thanksgiving break, Merritt said.

"Everybody gets to bring a little bit of their home Thanksgiving experience to the group. It's a good bonding experience," he said.

Merritt (senior-mechanical engineering) was a Hospitality captain last year and said he will probably bring green bean or spinach casserole again to this year's meal.

"It's really good -- pretty standard -- but one of my favorites," Merritt said.

Mary Fisher

Spring Bank Acres, Rebersburg (Vendor at State College Farmers Market)

For Fisher's Amish family, Thanksgiving is "kind of a hit or miss deal," she said.

In the Amish tradition, weddings begin after the autumn harvest and can run through the end of November, she said. Whether or not the family celebrates Thanksgiving depends if there are weddings happening at that time. The weddings are traditionally on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

"If we're home we try to make a special meal for the children," she said.

But a big meal is part of the wedding festivities, and feast foods might include an Amish roast, bread filling with gravy and pieces of chicken or turkey, creamed celery, cole slaw and mashed potatoes, she said.

Dana Leonard

State College Police Captain

Leonard's Thanksgiving memory that "stands out" was spent at an army post where his son was serving in 2001, Leonard said.

That was shortly after 9/11 when "the country was on edge," Leonard said.

"He was posted as a guard on the base; he was a new recruit. We were able to go down there to Kentucky and we had Thanksgiving dinner on the post with him and his friends in a tent," Leonard said.

This year, the whole family will be able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving together at home, where Leonard will "listen to the football game and fall asleep on the sofa," he said.