Watch CBS News

Higher Hopes! Celebrates 7th Annual Thanksgiving Food Distribution With 1,000 Meal Kits Delivered To Families In Need

Southfield (CW50) - Higher Hopes! was founded by William Birndorf seven years ago,​ after a large Thanksgiving dinner with his family led him to believe he could do something to help distribute food to families in need of a Thanksgiving meal. The idea grew from meal kits on Thanksgiving to millions of pounds of food distributed to food banks across Michigan year round.

In 2020 alone, Higher Hopes! increased food distributions from 12,000 food kits in 2019 to more than 13,600. They also distributed over 1,000 food kits monthly without any interruption totaling over 540,000lbs of food distributed.

Despite COVID-19 changing the way programs run in foundations across Michigan, Higher Hopes! finalized plans to move forward with the Thanksgiving program. They will celebrate their 7th annual Thanksgiving food distribution of 1,000 meal kits to families that have children enrolled in head start childcare partnership programs in the city of Detroit. From Turkeys to desserts, Thanksgiving distribution will total 65,000lbs of food.

Since its founding, Higher Hopes! contribution to people in need throughout the state of Michigan is over 1,600,000lbs of food.

Lisa and Bill
Community Connect Host Lisa Germani, with Higher Hopes! Founder William Birndorf

William Birndorf, Founder of Higher Hopes!, joins Lisa Germani on Community Connect to discuss how different this year has been due to COVID-19 and how the organization managed to have one of its best years to date.

To learn more about Higher Hopes!, go to HigherHopesDetroit.org

Watch COMMUNITY CONNECT, Saturday at 7am on CW50

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.