36 | DECEMBER 21 • 2023 
J
N

OUR COMMUNITY

A

nother Thanksgiving 
has come and gone, 
and so has another 
year of the Metro Detroit 
Jewish community banding 
together to help feed on-duty 
police officers with a complete, 
delicious Thanksgiving dinner. 
 
This Thanksgiving initiative, 
Feed the Force, was started by 
Noach Klein in 2018. What 
started with purchasing dinner 
together with a few local 
families and delivering it to 
the Oak Park and Southfield 
police departments has grown 
into a true community-wide 
effort in just a few years. 
This year, 125 meals were 
provided for officers on duty 
across nine police departments 
— Oak Park, Southfield, 
Berkley, Lathrup Village, 
Huntington Woods, West 

Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, 
Bloomfield Township and 
Birmingham.
Along with GoFundMe 
contributions from the Jewish 
community, the financing and 
overall efforts behind Feed the 
Force are backed by various 
families and community 
members. 
The officers were treated to 
these meals as an expression 
of gratitude during a 
time organizers say local 
police forces deserve to be 
recognized more than ever 
for working to keep the 
Jewish community safe — 
especially on holidays such as 
Thanksgiving where they’re 
sacrificing time away from 
their families.
The menu, provided by Chef 
Cari once again, included a 

carved turkey with traditional 
turkey gravy, a slow-roasted 
brisket, mashed potatoes and 
sweet potatoes, homestyle 
stuffing, green beans, 
cranberry sauce, crudités 
salad, dinner rolls, apple pie 
and pumpkin pie. Apple cider 
was purchased from Franklin 
Cider Mill, which generously 
donated donuts to every 
department as well. 
Children from the Jewish 
community wrote “thank-you” 
notes to families of officers 
from each department. 
Ensuring each department 
receives the hot food at 
dinnertime is an effort 
reflective of all the planning, 
organizing and hard work 
going into Feed the Force 
every year.
On Thanksgiving Day, it’s 

truly an all-day event for the 
organizers. They race across 
town and practically take over 
each station and set everything 
up. It’s not just a bunch of food 
dumped on the tables, either, 
as teams of local families 
carefully lay out the beautiful 
catered dinners, spread out 
nicely and done up right. 
Once again, because there 
was so much food, Chef Cari 
lent her catering truck to make 
the process easier. 
At each police department, 
the officers were beyond 
thankful for the heartwarming 
efforts. 
Ethan Gross, the backer 
of the West Bloomfield and 
Farmington Hills efforts, 
always makes sure to give the 
police departments a letter 
with the meals, thanking them 

Feed the Force Returns 

This year, 125 meals were provided for officers on duty 
across nine police departments.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER