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Winter donations can be in the bag ACCESS sacks are with today's MT ACCESS Food Share's hopes for a bountiful winter are in the bag -- a grocery bag, that is, included in today's Mail Tribune. More than 28,000 bags, donated by Sherm's Thunderbird Market and folded by volunteers, were distributed through the paper today. ACCESS is hoping the bags will come back from readers filled with enough food to total 25,000 pounds and get the food bank through the winter and spring. "We need the public to help us -- almost like a hibernating animal -- to get through the winter," said ACCESS Manager Ben Benjamin. Readers may fill their bags with nonperishable goods and drop them off at any fire department, at Sherm's or Food 4 Less, or any of the five churches listed on the outside of the bag. They can also bring them to tonight's Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Vogel Park at Main Street and Central Avenue in Medford. Suggested food items include pasta, beans, rice, peanut butter, canned meats and fish, powdered milk, cereals and infant formula. Benjamin said dollar donations also are welcome, as ACCESS can purchase five pounds of food for every dollar donated. Donations can be mailed to ACCESS at 3630 Aviation Way, Medford, OR 97504. In the 17 years since the grocery bag drive began, ACCESS has raised 382,676 pounds of food and $366,250. The Mail Tribune has sponsored the drive since its inception and this year donated $25,000 to ACCESS's new Community Kitchen. ACCESS feeds an average of 1,200 households -- from single people to families of eight or 10 -- every month, though Benjamin hopes to increase that number to 1,500 in December. The households are provided with a three- to five-day supply of food. Last year's drive raised $20,046 and 21,555 pounds of food, Benjamin said. The need for food donations is great this year, Benjamin said, citing a 14 percent increase countywide in people needing assistance with feeding their families. About 41 percent of those receiving food from ACCESS are children, Benjamin said. "I think the cost of living here is exceeding wage earning abilities," Benjamin said. "Even two parents working is a struggle to make cost of living here." ACCESS, which is stationed in a large warehouse off Highway 62, services 15 emergency food pantries throughout the county: four in Medford, two in Central Point, two in Ashland, two in Rogue River, and one each in Shady Cove, the Eagle Point area, Talent, White City and the Applegate. The grocery bag drive is one of three fund-raisers under way at ACCESS. The others are a drive for the final $250,000 needed for its Community Kitchen and "Take a Scan Against Hunger," in which shoppers can use bar-coded coupons at eight area grocery stores to donate $1, $2 or $5 by having them scanned at the checkout counter. The goal is to raise $15,000 by the end of December, said Philip Yates, ACCESS resource development manager. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA