Stories of holiday charity have filled Chattanooga newspapers for over a century. Year after year, the Chattanooga Times Free Press and its predecessor papers have published lists of people who need help through the winter and asked readers to support those people with donations.
The annual tradition, known as the Neediest Cases Fund until this year, when it was renamed the Ochs Community Fund, dates to 1914. It’s administered by United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
Newspaper readers through the decades learned each year about hardships facing dozens of people through a list of neediest cases published in December. Needs changed over the years — pleas for coal to heat homes became requests for help with electricity bills and rent — but the campaign’s aims and the idea that readers would help others in their community have not.
CAMPAIGN TAKES OFF