ORCCA: Feed • House • Warm • Educate

What is the Share Bear Snack Pack?
The Share Bear Snack Pack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other food resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. Through private and corporate donations, the Snack Pack Program is the first of its kind in Oregon.

How it works:

• Backpacks are filled with food that children take home on weekends.
• Food is child-friendly, nonperishable and easily consumed.
• Distribution is handled discretely on the last day before weekends or school vacations.

Schools will:

• Select the children
• Distribute the food
• Report progress to South Coast Food Share

South Coast Food Share will:

• Ready the food for distribution
• Transport the food to each site
• Solicit donations to support the program
• Provide public relations for the program

Together we can work towards food stability and ending hunger for our children in need.

Why the program exists...
Seven-year-old Cody and his nine-year-old sister Mackenzie hurried into their house in a recent Friday afternoon and emptied their school backpacks. On the kitchen table, next to a family picture and a pile of bills, each child laid out a cup of pudding, a packet of oatmeal, applesauce, a Slim Jim, fruit leathers, a box of cereal, peanut butter and cheese crackers, and fruit and grain bars. It wasn't a weekend homework assignment, it was their weekend breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Cody and Mackenzie are members of Share Bear Snack Pack Program sponsored by the South Coast Food Share, a program of Oregon Coast Community Action.

The teachers, school counselors, nurses, and social workers, based on the knowledge of the family backgrounds and the children's behavior in the classroom, choose kids for the Share Bear Snack Pack Program.

Typical Snack Pack
The children's backpacks are, for the most part, filled with child-friendly food that is nutritious, easy to open, and doesn’t require stove-top cooking.