Climbing mountains, donation status and the next couple of weeks

I remember a few weeks ago telling someone that it had been my experience that donations tended to be less in the  months after Christmas.  Really, it sadly shows how messed up our view of Christmas is; spend tons of money on things that are not necessary and then spend months "making up" the difference by not giving to charities who provide necessities for others.  Don't get me wrong, I'm just as temped as the next person to make sure my kids have a mountain of gifts on Christmas morning that to get to the top one might need a climbing harness, rope and whatever other gear climbers use to not die when they're on the face of a cliff but if it causes me to not be able to give in January, to not help in providing for the needs of others, then what have I taught my kids?  Alas, I have digressed from my original point...


As I said, it HAD been my experience in the past that giving is less in January but that has not been true for Bear Necessities!!!  Each week we have met the needs of the students enrolled and provided each with weekend meals!  So often people comment to me about the amount of work that I put into Bear Necessities and each time I tell them tell them three things that I believe with all my heart:  it's God who provides, it is the volunteers and donors that make it work and I am blessed SOOOO MUCH MORE than I work when it comes to Bear Necessities! So, thank you for being a part of what makes this awesome thing work!


Next week the kids don't have school on Friday.  That means that we need all the food by Tuesday evening (or before I wake up Wednesday morning for all you late night shoppers) so that the bags can be packed Wednesday after school and sent home Thursday.  Here's what we still need to fill those bags:

16 cans of tuna or salmon

6 boxes of Ritz crackers

19 cans of soup

15 envelopes of easy mac

17 cans of corn

16 fruit cups

20 pudding cups

20 apples

Updated 1/22-- We currently only need:  4 cans of tuna, 2 boxes of ritz crackers & 1 box of easy mac for this week.  The rest of the items above have been provided!

In looking at my calendar, it's getting a bit busy so I am going to go ahead and post the list that we need for the following week.  The following items need to arrive by the morning of February 2:

20 jars of peanut butter

1 jar of almond butter

21 plastic jars of jelly

7 boxes of ritz crackers

25 envelopes of easy mac

25 fruit cups

25 breakfast bars

25 apples

I'll try to update this next week so that you'll know where we stand on everything.  I also just looked at our volunteer sign up and am so excited that we have only five open spots between now and spring break!  If you haven't gotten your name on there yet and were hoping to, I wouldn't wait!  Thank you to everyone volunteering their time with their kids to pack and deliver the bags.  I am a big believer that serving with our kids will teach them more than we can imagine!


Blessings!