For some Texas A&M students, peanut butter and jelly can change the outlook of Kenyan education.
Students involved in the PB&J project gather at Rudder Fountain to hand out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to passers-by each Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The group’s mission statement is to “seek to provide practical ways for people to realize the excess in which they live and act on that realization by giving more of what they do not need to those who need it most.” They achieve this goal by asking students to donate what they would spend on lunch on a sandwich.
“Our main goal is to raise awareness about global hunger and try to get A&M students to contribute,” said L.A. Loftin, a junior communications major.
The project works with Steve Peifer, founder of Kenya Kids Can, to send lunches to students in Africa.
Kenya Kids Can was created in an effort to feed children in Kenya and improve education.
Since Peifer has started his mission, Kenyan student dropout rates have plummeted from 50 percent to less than 1 percent.
“In America, we don’t think about how there’s this whole other way of living because we don’t have to,” Loftin said.
It takes $1.50 a month to feed an African child according to Peifer, or $18 for one student to be fed for a year.
“Every time I buy coffee I think ‘this is $4 coffee, how many kids will this feed?'” said Karen Thias, a junior education major.
The PB&J project has raised more than $2,500. While the money can help Peifer feed students or build computer labs for them, they have chosen to make their donations food-specific.
“The idea of the PB&J project is to ‘give up your food to give someone else food.’ You may be spending a little more on a sandwich than you normally would, but you’re helping buy someone else’s food,” said Michael B. Allen, director of the PB&J project and a junior accounting major.
Jubilee is the group’s main event for the semester and will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Henderson Park.
Jubilee is an event in which people donate unwanted items such as clothes, furniture and cooking items. People in need can take what they need from these things.
“The idea behind it is that in the Bible in the Old Testament the year of Jubilee was the seventh year when God’s people would celebrate their work,” Loftin said, “and those that had excess would give to those who hadn’t done as well.”
To donate:Anyone can donate to the PB&J Project for Kenya Kids Can or Jubilee. To find out more visit their website at www.thepb&jproject.tamu.edu.