Church’s Peanut Butter Drive Benefits Local Charities
Jessica HiltonFeatured Photo: The staff at Roberta Tipps STEAM Academy. The academy was one of three local charities benefiting from the Peanut Butter Drive. Photo by Jody VanDrimmelen.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arlington, Texas, donated 375 pounds of peanut butter to three different organizations in the area. That’s enough peanut butter to make 6,000 sandwiches!
The peanut butter was collected September 24-25 at the Church’s biannual Stake, or regional, conference. Members brought jars of peanut butter to the meetinghouse to be collected, sorted and donated later. The peanut butter drive was organized by JustServe, a service organization sponsored by the Church.
Peanut butter is an important item to donate to food pantries because it is high in protein, is shelf-stable and doesn’t require refrigeration after being opened, and is a kid-friendly food. The peanut butter collected was donated to three different organizations: H.O.P.E. Tutoring, Tri-C pantry, and Roberta Tipps Steam Academy.
H.O.P.E. Tutoring is a free after-school tutoring program for students in grades 2-8, providing assistance with language arts, math, social studies, and science. H.O.P.E. stands for ‘Help Our Pupils Excel’ and began in 1996 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church and has since grown into a community-wide organization that has served thousands of economically disadvantaged students in the Arlington area. The donated peanut butter will be given to children in need to take home. You can apply to volunteer at H.O.P.E. tutoring, and they also accept financial donations on their website.
Tri-C pantry also received donations. Tri-C is the Christians Campus Center at UT Arlington and offers multiple resources to UTA students and staff, including a student center, a food pantry, and mission trip service opportunities, among others. The donated peanut butter will go to UTA students in need. Tri-C accepts financial donations on its website, https://www.tricatuta.org.
Roberta Tipps STEAM Academy, an elementary school in Mansfield, also received donations.
This service project came at the same time as the Church’s worldwide biannual General Conference, which began with a call to help the poor and distressed by President Dallin H. Oaks, an Apostle of the Lord. President Oaks described the charitable work church members did in 2021: $906 million dollars donated and used for various charitable endeavors in 188 countries and over 6 million hours of labor volunteered by church members. Just imagine all that’s been achieved this year!
“The Church of Jesus Christ is committed to serving those in need, and it is also committed to cooperating with others in that effort,” President Oaks declared. Donated peanut butter is no good without organizations that put in the labor to hand it out to those in need. In order to best serve others, we need to work together with different organizations and churches and strengthen the bonds between each other as Children of God. We are grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Lord’s work!
Jessica Hilton lives in Arlington, Texas, where she serves as a media specialist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and hiking.
