Peanut Butter Gold Standard
Bret Schanzenbach
President & CEO
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce
October is upon us and for many that means fall decorations, costume preparations and pumpkin spice lattes. But for the North County Food Bank it means that is time to “Scare Away Hunger” with their annual peanut butter drive.
The North County Food Bank is a chapter of the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank. Before COVID they were serving 350,000 people per month. One month into the COVID pandemic, the number shot up to 600,000 per month. This organization’s amazing work during that time helped them win “Nonprofit of the Year” honors at our 2022 CBAD Awards.
The Food Bank recently moved into a new North County home that greatly expanded their capacity here in our community. This is an exciting development as the need for services has not leveled off much since COVID started. Casey Castillo, CEO of the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, shared, “The San Diego Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organization in San Diego County. We are currently serving half-a-million people per month. In 2021 alone, we distributed 60 million pounds of food around the county, with 15 million of that being in North County.”
Each October the food bank focuses on peanut butter as peanut butter donations have always been the gold standard. You might ask, “Why?” Quoting the North County Food Bank’s website, “Peanut butter is an excellent source of protein for children and families. It is popular with kids. Plus, it’s shelf-stable, and one jar can provide more than 12 sandwiches!” Additionally, peanut butter is expensive for the food bank to purchase on its own. Unfortunately, since the onset of the pandemic, physical donations of food at the food bank warehouses have decreased. Therefore, it is time for us to step it up!
In 2021, 5,270 pounds of peanut butter were donated. More is needed in 2022. You can do your part in a variety of ways. First, you can stop by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce’s office and bring your peanut butter to us as we are an official collection center. We are located at 5934 Priestly Drive and you can come by anytime between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday through the entire month of October. Secondly, for our business members, you can also donate peanut butter via our October Happy Hour. On October 19 we will be at Hera Hub in Carlsbad from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Anyone who brings two jars of peanut butter gets in for free. By the way, please bring plastic jars of peanut butter, not glass. Of course, financials donations are welcome as well. Every dollar donated to the Food Bank provides 2 meals for hungry San Diegans.
And if you really want to be a super donor, bring some peanut butter and a pack of diapers! Yes, DIAPERS! The Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank is one of only three diaper banks in the entire state of California. Casey shared, “On average, we distribute about 800,000 diapers per month and in December, 2021 we distributed over one million.”
One in seven people in North County are food insecure. More disturbing is the fact that one in five children in North County are food insecure. Being food insecure literally means that these community members of ours do not know how they will get their next meal. Let’s make a collective impact and show those community members we care! And if your office wants to get in on the fun and collect peanut butter (and diapers), just let us know. We’d be happy to swing by and pick them up at the end of the October to add to our collection at the Chamber.