For more than 30 years, Montgomery County’s Holiday Giving Project (HGP) has provided Thanksgiving and December holiday assistance to low-income households. A network of social workers, school counselors, and other human service professionals refer families in need of holiday assistance to the County’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The program is seeking partners to help in this year’s campaign. DHHS distributes validated referrals among the Holiday Giving Partners, a partnership of local nonprofits, faith-based organizations and local governments. Each partner adopts specific zip codes in the County to serve referred families in need by providing things such as food, gift cards and toys collected through donations.
Each year the project comes closer to assigning all referred families in need, but some zip codes still struggle to meet demand. Zip codes in great need this year include Aspen Hill (20906), Wheaton (20902), Bethesda-Chevy Chase (20814, 20815, 20817), Burtonsville (20866), Clarksburg (20871), Damascus (20872) and Rockville (20850, 20851, 20852, 20853).
Individuals or groups interested in joining the partnership should email HGP coordinators at HolidayGivingProject@montgomerycountymd.gov to discuss how they can be paired with families in need. HGP is seeking to have partnerships lined by Friday, Oct 21.
In 2021, the project successfully matched 8,583 families (including 17,132 children) for Thanksgiving and 11,105 families (including 22,996 children) for December through 35 coalition members. Montgomery County Public Schools provided half of the referrals.
