Members of the legal community in Macomb County joined forces with local officials and businesses to offer a holiday dinner last year for veterans and those in need. The 2019 Christmas Eve event attracted hundreds of people of all ages to The Rec Bowl in Mount Clemens.
– Photo by John Meiu
By Melanie Deeds
Legal News
It takes more than the roadblocks and restrictions that come with a pandemic to derail Stephen Steinhardt and his fellow attorneys this holiday season.
In fact, the COVID-19 crisis seems to have solidified their resolve to feed as many of those who might not otherwise receive a holiday meal.
“There’s such a need for this,” said Steinhardt, who was honored by the Macomb County Bar Association with its 2020 Special Service Award for proposing the idea that led to last year’s wildly successful holiday feast — featuring turkey, ham, pizza, mashed potatoes, corn and cornbread — for some 250 people of all ages who gathered at the Rec Bowl in Mt. Clemens.
“You can’t say, ‘Why isn’t someone doing something.’ It’s up to me and this feels really good,” he added.
Just before Thanksgiving last year, Steinhardt had heard about an area restaurant offering free meals to those in need.
“I thought about all of the resources with the association and the foundation,” he recalled. “I thought this was something we could do.”
In a month packed with networking events, fund-raising and phone conversations, the project came together. It involved Macomb County judges, local officials and dozens of attorney volunteers. Many showed up at the Rec Bowl to do their part — greeting guests, seating them, serving the meal and cleaning up.
“When I was spreading the word about my idea, a lot of people said that they had been looking for a way to help,” Steinhardt said.
There was every intention to do it again this year, on a much larger scale. In fact, MCBA officials decided to make it an annual occasion. There even was talk of spreading it to a number of venues, serving more and more hungry souls.
“A lot of money came in. we had leftover food that we delivered to different shelters,” Steinhardt said. “We put that together in a month and figured this year, we would spend more time and have meals at different locations so more people could attend.
“Even with COVID, people need to be fed,” said Steinhardt. “In fact, it’s more important than ever.”
Aware that a live event would be out of the question, Steinhardt and others – among them MCBA Young Lawyers Section Chair Lauri Polizzi – began considering other ways to get their project off the ground.
“We didn’t want to stop,” Steinhardt said. “People are still hungry.”
It was agreed a fund-raising initiative could still be undertaken and Polizzi took care of that. She mobilized members of her committee who began contacting colleagues and law firms across the county in search of sponsorships and donations.
“It’s been going very well and we’ll continue to collect funds right up to the holiday,” Polizzi said. “We’re so very happy to help and everyone we contact is so generous and supportive.
“It’s rare that an attorney who is active in the community would say no to another attorney asking them to donate to a good cause. It says a lot of good things about our legal community that everyone is so very generous.”
With the money coming in, organizers needed to figure out how to get the food to those who needed it.
They decided on a two-pronged initiative.
Some of the donations would be given to Grace Episcopal Church in Mt. Clemens that serves meals and operates a pantry for the homeless.
“It’s good to support a church that is doing this year-round,” Steinhardt said.
Tom Stotz, an area attorney and longtime member of Grace Episcopal, noted the church has operated a year-round food pantry for 30 years and serves Wednesday and Sunday night dinners that feed thousands of needy people in the area. The church also fills school bags with food for area children in a project with a nearby Meijer supermarket.
The pandemic has forced some changes in these programs and dinners nowadays are take-out only.
The rest of the funds, Steinhardt said, would pay for “several hundred” pot pies from Boston Market Corp. — the main food supplier at last year’s event — which will be delivered to various homeless shelters in Macomb County.
“Sandwiches are not Christmas and plates of food aren’t that easy to move around,” Steinhardt said. “We wanted something warm and transportable. Next time, we are hoping to go back to the real thing, like last year.”
Steinhardt is thrilled that the initiative is going strong this year despite the pandemic and bolstered as well by the MCBA deciding to sponsor the event on a yearly basis.
“It’s good to know it will continue, with or without me,” he said.
Steinhardt said this initiative helps him follow the Jewish phrase that guides his life — tikkun olam.
He said the phrase was used to refer to social action work in the 1950s but has since taken on the definition of “to heal the world.”
“We all have a duty to educate, to feed and clothe those who are needy, to seek justice,” Steinhardt said. “It is a driving force in my life and working with the bar foundation helps me to fulfill my obligations to do my part. The bar does great work and I am proud to be a part of it.”
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Donations to Feed the Needy 2020 can be made at Macombbar.org or by mailing a check, payable to the Macomb County Bar Foundation, to: Macomb County Bar Association, 40 N. Main St., Mt. Clemens, MI 48043.
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