Lending a much-needed helping hand to those in crisis and strengthening our community have always been the aims of The Almanac Holiday Fund. The annual charitable giving drive is kicking off this week to support local nonprofits that serve children, families and individuals.

Donations from community members will enable Midpeninsula service organizations to bridge educational gaps, put food in hungry stomachs, ensure access to health care, step in with critically needed homeless services and more.

Every cent of every donation will go to these community agencies because The Almanac and its Holiday Fund partner, the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation, are absorbing all administrative costs to run the fund. All donations are tax-deductible.

This year, the Holiday Fund is supporting the following local nonprofits: Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula; Ravenswood Family Health Center; Ecumenical Hunger Program; Health Connected; LifeMoves; Literacy Partners; St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room; St. Francis Center; StarVista; and Upward Scholars.

Checks totaling more than $260,000 were handed out to representatives of 10 nonprofit organizations.

Contributions to the Holiday Fund will be matched this year, to the extent possible, by generous community organizations, foundations and individuals, including the Rotary Club of Menlo Park Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

"It gives us great joy to connect donors with grantees so that so much good work can be done to make lives better," said Bill Johnson, president of the Embarcadero Media Foundation.

For more information about the Holiday Fund, go to AlmanacNews.com/holidayfund. To give a donation online, go to embarcaderomediafoundation.org/holiday-fund/menlo-park. Checks can be made payable to Almanac Holiday Fund and sent to 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto 94306.

The Holiday Fund campaign will run through early January. Grants will be awarded in the spring.