First Quarter- Sweet Success!

Well, we have accomplished one whole quarter with sweet success!  I'm still not 100% sure of where this whole thing is headed in the long term but for the moment, I am enjoying the step we are on!  On a weekly basis I have questions about starting Bear Necessities groups at other schools within Francis Howell... or in neighboring cities... or across the country.  At this moment, my take on all of that is this; let's get through a whole semester well and then we can pray about the next step!  I really do have a sense that there is a greater need for communities to work together as we are and MANY ideas swirl around my head but I am committed to remember that each week there are almost 30 kids who are counting on bringing home a bag of food that I have the privilege of helping them receive.  I'm really confident that when the "next step" needs to be taken, things will fall into place and it will feel natural... whatever the "next step" is!

In the mean time, let's focus on those kids we have at John Weldon.  Everything that we needed was provided so that they will have food for the two weekends of fall break.  I was even able to put in a couple of extra things.  I'm seriously sooo excited about that.  In the last week there has been enough food donated for last weekend, this weekend and NEXT weekend!  It's nothing short of amazing!  I blogged about it on my personal blog over the weekend and I just gotta say, God is soo good!

School will be out of session until October 18, so our next delivery will go home October 21... which means that we need all of the food for that delivery by October 20 at 2 p.m.  We've got plenty of time, and there was some surplus this week... even more amazing, huh?... but let's not get distracted with the time off and forget our sweet kids!

Here's what we'll need by 10/20:

16 cans of chili
2 cans of beefaroni
19 cans of peas
14 fruit snacks
30 individual size Cheez Its
30 Nutragrain Bars
30 apples

The next week we will need the following by 10/27:

24 Peanut Butter
26 Plastic jars of Jelly
1 box of Ritz Crackers
15 individual Easy Mac envelopes
17 cans of green beans
23 fruit cups
30 individual size Rold Gold pretzels
30 Nutragrain Bars
30 apples

One additional thing that would be a great benefit to receive would be the items for our birthday bags:

gender neutral plates and napkins
gender neutral birthday cards
cake mix
icing

Since we'll be on break, I don't plan to update this grocery list until after school is back in session on 10/18 unless there's just WAY too much of something coming in and then I will let you know.

Thank you so much for your heart to care for the kids in our community!  Being a part of this program really touches my heart and I pray that it touches yours too!