Photo and story by Megan Cole / Contributing Writer
September is Hunger Action Month, and Mayday Brewery helped the community by donating jars of peanut butter.
The locally owned brewery had Peanut Butter Fridays on every Friday during the month of September. Mayday Brewery gave a first round two-for-one deal on their beer to people that brought in a jar of unopened peanut butter.
They collected over 83 jars of peanut butter, which equals around 108 pounds.
The brewery partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and donated all of the peanut butter at the end of the month. According to Second Harvest Food Bank, “1 in 7 Middle Tennesseans, including 1 in 5 children, struggle with hunger every day.”
Ozzy Nelson, the founder of Mayday Brewery, said that this is not the first time Mayday Brewery has partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank.
“Usually, we do a small batch beer and give the proceeds to a food bank, but this time we decided to do something more creative,” Nelson said. “I was just thinking about what is the best item we could donate, and my good friend Taylor Loyal with Second Harvest Food Bank suggested peanut butter.”
Donation Relationships Manager for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee Taylor Loyal emphasized how the donations will affect Murfreesboro.
“There are more than 37,000 people, including nearly 14,000 children in Rutherford County, who are ‘food insecure,'” Loyal said. “We know one of the healthiest, shelf-stable foods that can help with this challenge of hunger is peanut butter. Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee partners with 25 agencies in Rutherford County. All of the peanut butter donated to Second Harvest at Mayday will stay right here in Murfreesboro, helping local families who are struggling.”
Nelson said that the community has had a positive response to the Peanut Butter Fridays.
“I had no idea that there would the number of people bringing peanut butter in the very first week,” Nelson said. “And, it hasn’t stopped.”
Virginia Poole, an MTSU graduate student studying biology and a Mayday Brewery bartender, explained why she believed it was important to donate.
“Murfreesboro and Middle Tennessee in general have a lot of people that go hungry everyday and live below the poverty line, and everybody needs a helping hand every now and then,” Poole said. “The community have given so much back to Mayday (Brewery) that we try to give back as much as we can, and what’s better than beer and peanut butter?”
The brewery plans on continuing the tradition next September as well. For more information on the donation efforts and Mayday Brewery, visit here.
To contact News Editor Andrew Wigdor, email [email protected].
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Primarily, I would like to draw on how wonderful it is to give to the needy. It is refreshing to hear about a local business complying with a food donation organization to combat hunger. When other human beings are in need, it is our duty especially as their neighbors to lend a temporary helping hand and shine a light in a lately dimly lit room of kindness. I also find it extremely creative to give peanut butter of all possible food items because it gives the hungry extra protein to sustain their lives until they are able to find their next meal. Hopefully, other local businesses lead by example of the brewery and step forward to combat hunger in Murfreesboro next September.
As heartwarming as it is to catch wind of a local business donating food to the hungry, it is disturbing that there are so many hungry where we live in the first place. The number of hungry humans in Murfreesboro as presented by the article above is alarming for the fact that one person being hungry is a sad fate, now consider larger places such as Nashville or even America as a whole and contemplate the fearfully increasing rate of those numbers. Hunger among Americans is a large issue that can be curbed, and with an abundance of effort;stopped. Perhaps if little places such as the Mayday Brewery show their creative kindness and donate food to the hungry, it will get around to larger places in a triumph to aid hunger as a nation.
To conclude, hunger is a terrible problem pressing the lives of many Americans today. I am very thankful that I live in a community that serves to combat hunger in such creative ways and dedicates a month to spread awareness on the topic. My only hope is that one day I will see the headlines change from “Mayday Brewery participates in Hunger Action Month with Peanut Butter Fridays” to “Small efforts lead to larger efforts and world hunger is soon to be solved”.