Goodfellows’ food drive faces tough challenge in tough times

By Charles Sercombe

Every year the Hamtramck Goodfellows manage to scrape up enough money to feed a few thousand needy families.

Some years, the Goodfellows have to dip into their savings to make sure everyone gets a food certificate that can be redeemed for all the grocery items needed to make a nice, home-cooked holiday meal.

It’s no secret that the past few years have been a struggle to come up with the approximate $7,000 needed to get by. Given the economic free-fall the Detroit area is experiencing, this year is going to be gut-wrenching.

There’s no use sugarcoating what’s going on these days. With unemployment extensions cut off (at least, at the time we went to press, that was the latest update on what congress was doing), we are looking at some serious hard times in the coming weeks.

And when we say hard times, we mean like the 1930s and the Great Depression. Makes you pretty ticked off thinking about it.

But this is the holiday season, and here are some things we know about Hamtramckans: We are survivors. We care about our neighbors. We give. We help. We donate.

No questions asked, Hamtramck is there for you. The best buddy you can have.

That’s why this issue of The Review is extra special. This week’s paper is dedicated to the Goodfellows fundraising effort.

You may have even bought the issue you are reading now from a Goodfellows volunteer selling The Review out on the street.

If you didn’t, you can still contribute to their effort. It’s as easy as making out a check or visiting the Treasurer’s Office in City Hall.

To donate by check, make it out to: “Hamtramck Goodfellows” and mail it to the City of Hamtramck, Treasury Office, 3401 Evaline, Hamtramck, MI 48212.”

Want to help out or need more information? If so, give the group’s Chairman, Mike Wilk, a call at (313) 365-9600 or Co-Chair Chris Cornwell at (313) 330-9700.