Holidays highlight the needs of migrants in Denver

Driving the news: Local charitable organizations are scrambling to provide holiday joy to the newcomers by expanding housing as well as "adopt-a-family" and meal donation programs this season.

• Right now, the demand exceeds the contributions, a number of charitable organizations tell Axios Denver.

By the numbers: Catholic Charities of Denver is helping 4,000 individuals — mostly parents and children — through its adopt-a-family program, including an increasing number of migrants, spokesperson Stacy Baum tells John. About 80 individuals were still looking for matches with donors.

• Even small nonprofits, such as Amigas in Action, which supports families enrolled at two schools and a nursery in Denver, are seeing increased demand from migrants, says founder Kate Silverman.

The intrigue: The escalating need for assistance this holiday doesn't just apply to newcomers.

• The Salvation Army says it hopes to collect 10,000 toys for children in need in the metro area when its Angel Tree program launches Friday — and just about all of them will go to families who have lived in the community for years.

What they're saying: "These are [families] who had full-time jobs that took care of themselves that didn't expect to find themselves in this situation," the organization's Laura Wilson tells us.

• "The need continues to go up, so we have to work that much harder and ask for that much more money," she adds.

💭 John's thought bubble: Through Amigas in Action, my wife and I offered to help a local family this holiday. We were given a mother and daughter who arrived here in June after traveling from Venezuela.

• The mother tells us in a letter that they nearly died on the journey after getting sick from dirty water, but came because "the situation in [their] country had become unbearable."
• The girl, whose favorite color is "sparkly," put a bike, Legos and Barbies on her wish list.