The Windsor Goodfellows will be out on city streets later this week for their annual newspaper drive.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, volunteers will be out selling Goodfellow newspapers to raise money in support of a number of programs run by the organization.
Each year in late November, a team of Goodfellows spread out across the city to sell their traditional holiday newspaper and collect donations that fund Christmas meal boxes and food vouchers for thousands of families who would otherwise go without.
Goodfellows sell newspapers on the streets of Windsor for their annual fundraiser (photo by AM800's Kimberley Johnson)
President Jennifer Wells says you can expect to see people out and about in the dark morning hours, with most of the street corners that they will man on Thursday up and running by 7:30 a.m.
Wells says all of the money raised stays in Windsor.
"Anybody that is digging in their pockets, their cup holders, anyone who is an annual donor can rest assured that we only have about a 5% administration cost, so our money goes back to you. Most people know us for our Christmas boxes, and that's how the Goodfellows began," she said.
She says their programs today are year round programs, including their food bank which operates on Tuesday and Fridays, that will serve about 1,000 more families this year than last year.
"We have a breakfast program in 29 area schools, we have a shoe and boot program that costs us about $90,000 to $100,000 annually. We also have a brand new program started in 2020 out of the pandemic, which is a lunch bag program. This is for individuals experiencing homelessness, and we provide them no questions asked food on Tuesdays and Fridays too, and that program costs about $70,000."
Altogether to run their organization Wells says they're probably up over $1.2-million each year, and the newspaper drive equates to about 50% of the fundraising dollars needed to make sure they have those programs year over year.
Goodfellows are asking people to remember to bring some change with them when they leave the house later this week, but Wells says there are other ways to support the cause including donating online through debit and credit cards.
She says they also have a text to give program.
"You can text $5, $10, or $20 to 45678, which is our text to give code. So you do not have to have cash in your pocket this year, we would love it if you did and we found you the traditional way, but the Goodfellows are 112 years old but we're always trying to find ways to meet the community where they are," she said.
Goodfellows were out in the county last week, and while Wells says they typically don't get totals from them for a while, she's heard Lakeshore had a really positive outcome.
She says they've also seen a lot of mail-in donations compared to previous years, so they're hopeful Windsor will come through for them again this year.