Numbers Of Needy Families On The Rise For Holiday Food Charity

By Mana Rabiee

Hundreds of struggling families in D.C. are receiving Thanksgiving gift boxes from a private food program. This year, the number of families in need has grown.

Project Giveback is a local food charity that delivers food baskets to needy families for the holidays. The number of families they helped this year almost doubled from last year to about 850.

Ransom Miller founded the program. He says each year they called families ahead of time to arrange the drop-off. But this year something new happened.

"We used to have people say, 'Hey, you know what, I might be on that list, but I just got a new job and give that basket to somebody else.' Well, we're not getting those anymore," says Miller.

The baskets included a turkey and trimmings but also enough food staples like potatoes, onions and fruit to last a family nearly two weeks.