SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Single Mom Strong, a nonprofit organization based out of Sacramento County, is holding its seventh annual “adopt a family” program this holiday season.
Families enrolled in the program receive a holiday meal, a special present for mothers and multiple gifts for their children, according to Single Mom Strong.
The program is helping 66 families in 2023, roughly 300 people, and present delivery began Friday afternoon.
Sacramento County Children’s Coalition says 33% of children in the Sacramento region live in a single-parent household and 74% of them live with their mother.
"Single parenting is hard, and we go through times where we do not need help, then we go through times where we need a lot of help,” said Brandi Jordan, a mother involved with the nonprofit organization.
Tara Taylor, Single Mom Strong’s founder, said the foundation aims to create opportunities for mothers and their children to connect with one another and the adopt-a-family program matches donors with families of their preference.
“They might want to support a large family, small family, younger kids or older kids," Taylor said. "I wanted our families not to feel like they were getting charity, but experiencing a holiday.”
Jordan, who has two children, said the program is a lifesaver.
“My kids were blown away by just that somebody would care, somebody that doesn’t know us, would care like that,” Jordan said.
Summer Cemo is a volunteer with Single Mom Strong. She said she wraps the gifts for families participating in the program and does so for personal reasons.
“I was raised by a single mom, and we had those hard holiday seasons,” Cemo said. “Just a little gift of things, like a Christmas tree showing up at our front door, that always sat deep in the core of my soul as what's important during the holidays and made a huge difference for our family.”
