It all began with an idea…..we would donate a full Thanksgiving dinner to a local family needing a little hand up this year. We would ask our customers, friends and neighbors to supply a short story about someone in need via our website. Then we would ask our followers to vote on the story that touched them the most. Next we began getting the word out…..and to our surprise, and delight, people starting asking if they could help by sponsoring additional families. A couple of our vendors even got involved with donations of food! It was amazing! In the end we were able to prepare and deliver dinners to five families thanks to the generosity of our community. And at the end of the day, food remaining in our pans were boxed into 10 individual meals and delivered to the Salvation Army to be handed out to their resident community. I have to say, after living in many communities in the Midwest and east coast, I find the generosity in our area to be outstanding. Another good reason to live and raise families on Michigan’s West coast!

We have concluded the voting and as it turns out we are delivering FREE full meals with all the fixings to 4 different families averaging 8 members per family. In addition we are delivering 10 individual full meals to struggling families living in the Salvation Army assisted housing here in Grand Haven. We have awarded meals to individuals associated with The Salvation Army, United Methodist Church in Spring Lake, The People Center, and a private family living in Grand Haven. Thanks again to Mike Rose Landscaping, Visser Farms Zeeland, MI, and Sysco Grand Rapids as well as our friends and customers who made donations to make this all possible. More to come as the holidays unfold...

1. Jane Anderson The Salvation Army of Grand Haven has shelters for families in situational poverty. These families are unable to provide for their households and would greatly appreciate a Thanksgiving meal. There are currently seven families in the emergency shelter housing, these families range from single mothers with children to married couples with children. Thank you for your consideration.

2. Karen Reenders Living at The People Center, I have five families that are struggling with finances right now. I would really like to tell you about one family right now. A very young married couple with two children under age three and one due in December. Husband works for minumum wage and wife is off work right now due to the pregnancy. They have been struggling with finances and their marriage. With the help of The People Center, we hope to get them to a stable lifestyle. In the mean time, they are using our food pantry and just barely making ends meet. They would make a great family to help.

3. Jen There's a family in our church that volunteers every week and has saved the church so much money over the years because of the time they spend working on technical and sound projects. One of the sons is here almost every day of the week to work on something. The parents are retired and the two adult sons have been unemployed and unable to find work for quite a while. They all have a huge heart for serving our church. It would be really special if they received a Thanksgiving dinner. We'd like this submission to remain anonymous, please. Thanks for your consideration.

4. Terri A lady in Spring Lake recently had major back surgery, and will be unable to work for three months. She doesn't have short-term disability insurance. Her husband is unemployed! They are a family of six

5. Terri A single mom with two sons,who lives in Grand Haven. The mom works full-time in Grand Rapids and goes to college in the evenings in Muskegon. She spends time volunteering at her church, and she also spends time, and money, to prepare hundreds of sandwiches for needy people in Grand Rapids. She makes the sandwiches at home, and takes them to Grand Rapids to hand-out on her lunch hour. Always a giver, she plans to have Thanksgiving dinner for her Mom, and other family members! She's on a very limited budget.

We are giving away a free full Thanksgiving dinner to a few families in need in the Tri-City Area this year. We have received donations from Visser Farms in Zeeland, MI as well as Sysco Food service in Grand Rapids, MI.We are asking our fans to post a short story about a family of 4-8 members that are really struggling this holiday season. Submissions can be posted to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/itsnobull or emailed to us directly by visiting the contact us page of this web site and submitting through the email form. We will post the chosen stories on the site after Nov 15th and hope you will return to vote and help decide who will receive this meal to remember. The chosen family will be selected on November 20th and contacted that day to make arrangements for delivery on Thanksgiving day. If you would like to make a donation to the cause we may be able to provide meals for multiple families this season. We also have a few customers who have donated a few of our $6.99 individual meals which we will either award to additional families or disperse through salvation army, The People Center, or other participating businesses who aid those in need. Please give us a call 616-604-0478 or stop by the restaurant for details or to make a donation. We may be looking for a few people with transportation to help deliver the donated meals. If you interested Please send me an email from the contact us page of the web site.

Local real estate broker Dave Ruwe and his family have donated a full thanksgiving dinner to a second family in need. We really need your participation in getting some families in nominated in order to make this work. There are plenty of familes who are struggling right now. it does not have to be some "extreme makeover" kind of story. If you are struggilng personally tell us a little bit about it. Did you loose your job? Family living with you because of tough times or illness? Are you battling illness or taking care of someone who is? Have you dedicated your life to helping others? We want to help but we need your participation. Please encourage others to participate as well. Thanks to Dave and his family for the very kind donation.

Know of a Tri-Cities' family who will find it tough to put a traditional Thanksgiving spread on the table this year? Anthony's Kicked Up Catering wants to hear about them. "We see lines at the free food drives in town regularly and they seem to be growing,". "Our family has been blessed and we would like to pass that on to some less fortunate. We want to raise community awareness – these conditions are very real and there is a lot we can all do to help." Chef Anthony Gonnella, Owner of Anthony's Kicked Up Catering, is asking people to share a short story about a family of four to eight members who they feel are really struggling this holiday. You can post the stories at the restaurant's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/itsnobull, or by visiting the company's website, www.itsnobull.com. You're asked not to include the family's name, address, or other identifying information. We will contact you by email to arrange contacting the family, so check them often on Nov 20th as if we do not hear back quickly we will have to contact the next in line to assure the arrangements can be made and the family would like to participate. If all parties are willing we have a professional photographer, Craig Watson, who is willing to take a few snapshots upon delivery to publish on the web site and on my blog both here and on Mlive.com in the new Tri-Cities section. We will post the chosen stories here in this blog after Nov. 15 and encourages the public to vote and help decide who will receive the meal(s). On Nov. 20, the family will be selected and arrangements will be made for Thanksgiving Day delivery. If we receives enough public participation, we would be willing to give away up to three full meals. Contact us if you would like make a donation to help another family.