After months of inflation, low-income families face an increased obstacle in meeting their basic needs. As the holiday season quickly approaches, parents will be forced to make hard choices: Can they afford gifts for their children, or do they need the money for rent? Can they still provide their children joy around the holidays when even the basics have gotten harder to maintain? Impossible questions like these are why this year, the JF&CS Holiday Gift Card Drive is more important than ever.

The drive collects donations in any amount from our generous network of donors, in the form of money or direct gift cards. Donations are used for the purchase of Target gift cards, which are given to very low-income families. The families can then choose which toys or gifts to buy their children, bringing joy and empowering parents to pick out the gifts they know their children will love.

The Gift Card Drive is a wrap-around service for families JF&CS supports with other services. While we assist the parents with their needs, financial and otherwise, we can also address their children’s needs with meaningful holiday gifts.

Our goal is to provide gift cards to more than 500 families in need in the community, helping families that may be as much as 300% below the poverty line. The gift cards benefit children regardless of religion or holiday.

We’d like to gather the donations for cards by Friday, Nov. 18, to make sure families have enough time to buy gifts before holidays begin. Please donate before then. With help from the community, we can spread joy and happy memories to as many of these families as possible.

If you can donate to support the drive, thank you!

We have been grateful to get wonderful thank you notes from families helped by the Holiday Gift Card Drive:

holiday gift card drive thank you
(Photo: JF&CS)

“Thank you so much for your generosity for Chanukah. One day I hope to be able to give back as your kind donors have.”
—A child of a family receiving a gift card

“They [gift cards] so helped me provide for my children during Hanukkah time. I really did not know how I was going to make it happen this year.”
—A parent

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