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ACCESS strains to meet food goal Organizations need help Here are other organizations that need the public's help over the holidays: The Salvation Army has received more than 1,000 applications from low-income families for Christmas baskets. The social service organization will take applications for the holiday food baskets through Friday. It will accept food donations through Wednesday. The army also assigns families to businesses and individuals interested in adopting a family and helping them with food and gifts for Christmas. The agency still needs turkeys, stuffing mix, canned food, and baking ingredients, including flour, sugar and shortening, for the holiday baskets. Drop off donations at the Salvation Army office, 922 N. Central Ave., Medford, between 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. For more information on how to help with Christmas baskets, call Linda Roome at 773-6965. By BILL VARBLE Like a college student saying hey, forget the care packages and send money, ACCESS is asking people to reach for their checkbooks. Here's why: The December food drive that ACCESS holds each year (for which grocery bags went out in the Mail Tribune's Nov. 30 edition) has lagged this month both in terms of food and cash, ACCESS resource development manager Philip Yates said Tuesday. This year's edition -- the drive is now in its 15th year -- started with a goal of raising $15,000 and 35,000 pounds of food by Jan. 1. As of Tuesday, $15,250 had been raised, but only 18,000 pounds of food. In other words, ACCESS has handily passed its cash goal but has raised only half the food goal. And that's with only a bit more than a week to go. "It's going to be difficult to reach the goal in terms of canned food," Yates said. "But if we raised another $4,000 in cash, that would represent another 16,000 pounds of food, and that would offset the shortfall." That's because ACCESS delivers about four pounds of food for every dollar it raises, Yates said. "People have been very generous," he said. "But the last few days the weather has prevented a lot of people from going out and shopping." For ACCESS, this may be a case of going with the flow. ACCESS Food Share manager Ben Benjamin said that over the years the trend among contributors has clearly been in the direction of less food and more cash. For those who still want to give food, bags can be delivered to any Jackson County fire station, Sherm's Thunderbird or Food 4 Less stores in Medford or any of a number of churches. To make contributions or get more information, call 779-6691 or send checks to P.O. Box 4666, Medford, OR 97501. Yates said it's hard to say exactly what a shortfall in the annual drive would mean. From mid-October through the end of December, ACCESS usually collects some 70,000 or 80,000 pounds of food. Recipients are people who seek emergency food through the ACCESS Food Share network, including food pantries and agencies such as the Salvation Army, Dunn House, OnTrack and others. If the December goal is met, ACCESS officials figure that's enough food to last until April or May. If donations stopped right now, it wouldn't mean that ACCESS would stop feeding people immediately, Yates said. ACCESS would probably run out of food a month earlier, he said. "Of course we'd be forced to do something else if that happened," he added. CERVS still needs toys Many Christmas toy drives are over, but one is still working so hundreds of low-income children will have a present to unwrap Christmas Day. CERVS is still requesting toy donations for the families who turned to the Salvation Army for help with holiday food baskets. "I need help," said Cindy Murphy, CERVS program coordinator. "We have 250 families who need toys." The social-service group has already given out thousands of toys, Murphy said. "I really thought we would have enough," she said. Close to 1,500 families have signed up for Christmas help with toys and food, she said, and many of those families are large. To help, call CERVS at 779-8564, or drop toys off at 601 N. Grape St., Medford. Agency volunteers will also pick up donations. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA