What is Bear Necessities?

If you're here, you have possibly already heard what Bear Necessities is either from John Weldon Elementary or my other blog post. The short version of it is that it is a liaison between two groups of people in one community. Basically, a community of people behaving like a real community. Some have much. Some have nothing. Bear Necessities closes part of that gap between the two by providing food to students over the weekends that may not have much at home. Everything received by students in this community is donated by others in the community. By the provision of Christ Jesus, Bear Necessities is currently serving John Weldon Elementary.

In the last 48 hours, since my name has been attached to this, I have received many sweet emails, texts and personal thank yous and compliments. What I would like for everyone to know is this idea is not mine. If it were possible to be anonymous, I would but it's not realistic since a central place to donate is needed. This idea came from much prayer and leading by my Savior and friend, Jesus and it is through Him that I believe that this can work!

I have also received many ideas of a "bigger picture" of what this can be. Believe me, my head is swirling and I have so many ideas on this but I want to make sure that everything is done well and right now, that requires taking it one day at a time. Yesterdays goal was to get enough food for the kids that had signed up and deliver it to school. Today's goal is to create two ways for community members to know what we need. One is here and the other is the Facebook page. I will update each weekly with what is needed to fulfill the week's mission. Tomorrow's goal is to rest and enjoy my family! After that... well, we'll just have to wait and see!

With that, I am grateful that we (and I say "we" because MANY donated yesterday and Thursday to make this possible) were able to provide food for the weekend to the six kids that were signed up by yesterday morning. At the end of the day yesterday, we had another ELEVEN that signed up! That brings us to 17 students at the moment. It's a bittersweet thing to know that there is such a need for this in our community but I'm confident that, together, this will be fulfilled as well.

I will close with a few questions that have come to me so far on how to best purchase items for this.

1. Can I donate big boxes of cereal?
Bear Necessities cannot take regular sized boxes of cereal because everything has to fit inconspicuously into each child's backpack. The small individual size boxes are perfect for this! If you have extra bigger sizes that you don't need, I would be happy to drop them off at Calvary Church's food pantry. They feed several families every week from our area.

2. Can I bring things in bulk?
While I encourage you to buy in bulk, I do not have room for an entire food pantry in my basement. If you are going to buy in bulk and are not able to keep it at your house, please call me first to make sure I have room for the amount. It is possible that this will change in the future but this is what I'm thinking right now.

3. How can I help?
Check the FB page or here each week before you go to the grocery store and donate! In the future I hope to have things set up so that families can help pack the bags as well and I will let you know as soon as that is ready. I will also be needing someone to make occasional phone calls, do research, copy, etc. If that's something you are interested in volunteering for, please let me know.

That's it for now. Please comment below, whether it's just a comment or a question. I am so very excited to be serving our great JWE community!