The Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, in Washington, is awarding more than $500,000 in emergency grants to 40 local social-service organizations, reports The Washington Post.

Groups receiving grants will use the money to distribute food, provide shelter and transitional housing for homeless people, and give emergency funds to families struggling to pay rent and other basic expenses. The grants will help charities protect “those people who are kind of on the edge, are falling off the cliff, and they have to be able to depend on something,” said Terri Lee Freeman, president of the foundation.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)