Goodfellows start their annual food drive for the needy

Hamtramck Goodfellows pose for their annual group photo in front of Hamtramck City Hall. They will be selling a special issue of The Review on Friday (Nov. 30) to raise money for food coupons. The coupons are given to needy families and individuals who can redeem them for food.

By Charles Sercombe

The paper you are holding today is extra special.

Special in the sense that, if you purchased it from a Hamtramck firefighter standing in an intersection today (Friday, Nov. 30), that money went directly to thousands of needy folks living here.

The newspaper sale is part of a yearly tradition sponsored by the Hamtramck Goodfellows.

The newspaper drive helps raise money to purchase food coupons. The coupons go into the hands of low-income families and individuals.

Those coupons are redeemed at A & C Market, where the recipients can purchase a nice holiday meal to prepare at home.

In the past, the Goodfellows have dipped into their savings to make sure everyone gets a food certificate.

It’s no secret that in the past few years it’s been a struggle to come up with the approximate $7,000 needed to fund the food drive each holiday season. Given the economic free-fall the Detroit area has been experiencing, this year won’t be easy either.

Despite the economic hardship, Hamtramck can always count on its residents to help each other out. We did it in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and we can do it now in what’s being called the Great Recession.

We are survivors.