UF/IFAS Extension Annual Peanut Butter Challenge in Full Swing

If you want to help feed the hungry in Florida’s Panhandle this year, you can donate peanut butter during the annual Peanut Butter Challenge, coordinated by UF/IFAS Extension. Through this annual challenge, food pantries from Pensacola to Monticello will receive thousands of jars of donated peanut butter this December.

From October through Nov. 27, you can donate unopened jars of peanut butter at your UF/IFAS Extension county office. Each year, one or more UF/IFAS Extension faculty in Escambia County collect unopened peanut butter jars at the at locations around the county. This year, drop-off boxes can be found at: 

• UF/IFAS Extension Escambia County, 3740 Stefani Road in Cantonment
• Escambia County Public Safety, 6575 N. W St. in Pensacola
• Escambia County Farm Bureau, 153 Highway 97 in Molino
• Gilmore Services, 31 E. Fairfield Drive in Pensacola
• Escambia County Administration, 221 Palafox Place, 4th Floor in Pensacola 
• Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit, 10650 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola 

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 1,233 jars of peanut butter, said Libbie Johnson, agricultural agent for UF/IFAS Extension Escambia County and co-organizer of the challenge. The local peanut industry support also contributes an additional 3,000 jars.

They hope to surpass that total this year, and citizens of Escambia County are asked to help. 

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