Seattle – Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants is hoping customer’s spare change adds up to big support for local homeless children and their families this holiday season. The famed restaurant chain announced today that all customer donations through the Change For Charity program will focus on this critical need during December.

“Many families with children continue to struggle in our community,” said Jim Spady, vice president for Dick’s Drive-Ins, “homelessness is especially bitter for children during the Christmas season, so that is why we’ve decided to focus customer donations on this cause.”

Since 1998, Dick’s Change For Charity program has raised over $500,000 in donations from customers who drop their change in the little collection boxes at Dick’s 6 local restaurants including the new restaurant in Edmonds.

“The success of the program is a testament to the generosity of our customers and we want to thank each and every customer who ever made a donation,” Spady said.

2011 included the largest single monthly donation in March when over $21,000 was collected to aid the earthquake and tsunami relief effort in Japan.

“We’re hoping those little change boxes will add up to an even bigger impact this December to house homeless kids in our community,” Spady said.

Change For Charity boxes are located at the Wallingford, Broadway, Holman Road, Lake City, Queen Anne, and the new Dick’s Drive-In in Edmonds.

In addition, Dick’s Drive-In plans to match customer donations from December 2010 in the form of a company donation to its other charity organizations serving homeless men and women. Spady added that the matching donations for this month will include an appropriate adjustment from the new Edmonds location since that drive-in was not open in December 2010.