Homeless family struggling for food hopes for good Christmas for teenage daughter

For Monica and her family, simply finding shelter has been a challenge. Even the cheapest of motels is beyond their means.

Meals are, likewise, a struggle to find, and when they do get food it has to be rationed to make it last for herself, her husband, and their 16-year-old daughter.

The Goodfellows Fund is there to help families like Monica’s by providing them a holiday meal package that includes about 90 pounds of food. The Star-Telegram charity has been helping families in need during the holiday season for over a century.

“We have been homeless for awhile. To us it seems like forever,” Monica wrote in a letter to the fund. “My husband can’t work because of his hands, my 16-year-old daughter has autism and other issues. I recently had to stop working because of the virus.

“I was getting unemployment benefits but they stopped them. The job I was at said I quit — and I didn’t — so we lost income.”

To compound the situation, when Monica decided to brave the COVID-19 pandemic and see what work she could find, she had to have surgery, and is unable to work.

“All I wanted was to provide for my family, a home and car and a good job. Wishful thinking I guess,” Monica said. “All I need is for my daughter to have a good Christmas.”

Thanks to the Goodfellows Fund, they won’t go hungry this holiday season.

This year the fund, working with the Tarrant Area Food Bank and Albertson’s/Tom Thumb, is expecting to provide as many as 6,000 holiday meals to Tarrant County families. These will include a smoked turkey and four boxes of food.

Be a Goodfellow

Since 1912, the Star-Telegram’s Goodfellow Fund has provided help and assistance for Tarrant County schoolchildren. This season because of the COVID-19 protocols, the charity is providing the families a holiday meal, complete with a smoked turkey. Join this tradition by sending a contribution to Goodfellows, Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101, or visitgoodfellowfundfw.com to make a secure credit card donation.