Exchange Food for Lift Tickets at Mt. Bachelor

[Pat Donnelly]

Bend, OR (Tuesday, January 18, 2005) - On Friday, January 28, Oregon's Mt. Bachelor ski and snowboard resort will give away thousands of dollars in lift tickets in an effort to fill the warehouses of the Central Oregon Action Agency Network (COCAAN) and feed the needy of Central Oregon.

Guests who bring three cans of food or non-perishable food items to mountain ticket windows starting at 7:30 a.m. on Free Ski Day will be treated to an all-day lift ticket or Nordic Trail Pass courtesy of Mt. Bachelor. The lifts will begin operating that day at 9:00 a.m. Mt. Bachelor and the radio stations of Combined Communications are also encouraging guests to bring more than just three cans of food.

“Last year our guests donated 26,780 pounds of food and we gave out 6,800 lift tickets,” said Mt. Bachelor spokesman Chris Johnston. “This filled the COCAAN warehouses, but they were empty again three weeks later.”

According to the COCAAN website Oregon ranks number one in the United States for food insecurity with hunger and Oregon ’s hunger rate is nearly twice the national average.

In Deschutes County over half of those receiving social services have had to reduce meal sizes or skip meals altogether because they do not have enough money to buy food.

More food, especially nutritional food, can help to alleviate hunger. Mt. Bachelor encourages guests to donate canned tuna, chicken and salmon, canned and boxed meals such as soup, chili, stew, and macaroni & cheese, peanut butter, canned beans and peas, pasta, rice, and cereal, powdered milk and 100 percent fruit juices.

For safety reasons guests are asked to not donate rusty or unlabeled cans, homemade items, non-commercially packaged items, alcoholic beverages, mixes or soda, open or used items.

“Thanks to the Source Weekly, Knott Landfill, US Postal Service and volunteers from the National Guard and Juvenile Center we can do so much for those served by COCAAN,” Johnston added. “We hope our guests take advantage of Free Ski Day, but we also hope they donate time, food or money at other times of the year.

Three National Guard vehicles sit filled with foodstuffs for the Central Oregon Action Agency Network warehouses from the Free Ski Day food drive in 2004. (photo: Dowayne Robertson)