Help Feed the Hungry – The UF/IFAS Extension Peanut Butter Challenge is Underway!

by | Sep 28, 2018 | Agriculture Awareness, Community Service Project, General Agriculture, Peanut

Donate jars of unopened peanut butter to your County Extension Office for delivery to local food pantries. Paul Davis, 4-H youth development agent, and Julie McConnell, horticulture agent, both with UF/IFAS Extension Bay County, stand next to their 2016 peanut butter donations.

If you want to help feeding hungry people in Florida’s Panhandle this year, you can donate peanut butter during the annual Peanut Butter Challenge, coordinated by UF/IFAS Extension.

Thanks to a partnership of UF/IFAS Extension and the Florida Peanut Producers Association, food pantries from Pensacola to Monticello will receive thousands of jars of donated peanut butter this December.

From October 1 through November 21, you can donate unopened jars of peanut butter to your local UF/IFAS Extension county office, and other drop off points in each participating county.

Since 2012, the volunteers and UF/IFAS Extension faculty have collected jars of peanut butter from residents, volunteer groups, and businesses in 16 northwest Florida counties. “Last year, UF/IFAS Extension county offices received 6,222 jars of peanut butter,” said Libbie Johnson, agricultural agent for UF/IFAS Extension Escambia County and co-organizer of the Challenge.

“In addition to these donations, the Florida Peanut Producers Association also contributes, supplying more than 3,000 jars each Challenge,” Johnson said.

“The Peanut Butter Challenge not only raises awareness about the important contribution of North Florida’s peanut growers to the state’s peanut industry, but also helps provide a healthy, locally produced product to food-insecure families in Northwest Florida,” Johnson said.

Check out the YouTube video produced to share the importance of this nutritious food for local food pantries.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJtSB4_Z6XU&w=853&h=480]

 

Doug Mayo
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