Peanut Butter Project

"The Peanut Butter Project is an awareness organization on hunger and we have morphed into a hunger coalition. So in the community we're asking all groups like Peanut Butter Project, congregations, agencies that have food banks, to come together and work together solving hunger, not just giving out emergency food but coming up with solutions. So we're showing kids how you can eat fairly, locally, sustainably, using solar ovens. How to eat more healthy, nutritious food which is an important part of the hunger piece, because there's a lot of issues with nutrition in our schools and childhood obesity. So the hunger coalition addresses all of this because all of the agencies work together, rather than each one on their own dealing with their piece of the poverty issue."
-"So how did you personally get involved? What drew you to this?"
"I've always been involved with ProJeCt's Interfaith Food Pantry. I used to  work at ProJeCt in the 1990s as their literacy director. So through my church, I maintained a relationship being the food donation person, Safe Harbor meals, all that stuff, and in 2012 I found out there was not peanut butter at the food pantry. They were saying, 'We really could use peanut butter' and I thought 'This is crazy: what do you mean peanut butter? This is protein! You can use it at any meal, it does not need to be refrigerated, a child can serve themselves protein from a peanut butter jar without the help of an adult. It's a really critical priority staple.' So I just went on the Internet to all my friends and said, 'Please help me raise 500 jars of peanut butter for the project.' Little did I know that they were already serving over 1400 people a month and the 500 jars wasn't going to go very far. So, at that point, I started the Peanut Butter Project to raise awareness about hunger and to help people understand that there are those in need in our own communities. One in six Americans are suffering from hunger. So, it's basically me working out of my home connecting with other people and helping them get on board with understanding the hunger issue."

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