Peanut Butter Drive Helps Haitian Kids Learn

A peanut butter sandwich probably seems like a pretty simple, perhaps boring food by American standards. In Haiti though, in our own backyard, geographically speaking, a peanut butter sandwich can mean the difference between a day of dealing with hunger pangs and day of learning.

Providing these sandwiches to Haitian school children has been the mission taken on Carol and Frank Allbright of Pana, and they have been aided in this mission by the parishioners of Oakdale United Presbyterian Church.

“You have been an answer to our prayers this school year,” the Allbrights wrote in a thank you letter to the church, saying that their donation of $4,791 would help to provide sandwiches daily for 220 Haitian kids from now through the end of their school year on July 1.

The collection isn’t over yet though. A pyramid of peanut butter sits in the lobby of the Oakdale Church, and sometimes, it will grow during the day or overnight when someone drops off a donation.

Church member Sandy Taft has been working to collect donations and let people know about the drive, and early on Monday afternoon, came in with her grandkids, Reagan Taft and Jase Leonard, who had peanut butter of their own to drop off.

On Sunday evening, the church hosted a concert by Monty Jackson and the free will offering that night was, you guess it, peanut butter.

The Allbrights will be returning to Haiti on January 25 and will be packing blue food-grade barrels with peanut butter to bring with them when they do, with much of it coming from Oakdale.

If anyone would like to contribute to the drive, donations can be dropped off in the church lobby.

If anyone wants to make a monetary donation, checks may be made out to Oakdale Presbyterian and put “peanut butter” in the memo line. Pastor John Campbell says that 100% of any donation will either be eaten by the children in Haiti, or be used to purchase peanut butter, which would then be eaten.