Lea Jean Manry (l) presents EC2055’s Georgina Freeman $5,000 from Birdsong Penuts and $1,000 from Peanut Proud. Over three million servings of peanut butter are on the way to Haiti this week to assist relief efforts underway in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake.

The project, Peanut Butter for Haiti, was initiated by Barton Rice, executive director of Early County 2055, who stepped forward with the first financial pledge Thursday to deliver peanut butter to Haiti. The peanut industry quickly stepped forward when Lisa Collins of EC2055, contacted several peanut organization leaders for advice on the best way to purchase the peanut butter and have it shipped to Haiti.

“Southwest Georgia is often called the Peanut Capital of the World,” said Lisa Collins, the director of Economic Development for Early County 2055. “We realized we could use our own peanut industry to bring some relief to Haiti. Birdsong Peanut Company and Early County 2055 have partnered to make it happen.”

Word about the project spread rapidly, and within two days of the project’s formation donations had reached $67,000. Sally Wells, Birdsong Peanuts’ logistics/ administrative manager, helped the project reach peanut industry members across the country, and almost $50,000 had been raised by noon Friday. “We all just started making phone calls and sending emails,” Wells said.

“It didn’t take long for word to spread through the community and the peanut industry. Pledge after pledge started rolling in,” Rice said. “The interest and heartfelt generosity is remarkable.”

According to Birdsong Peanut Company President Jeff Johnson in Suffolk, “Donations have been coming in steadily. We have enough to send four container loads, or about 126,000 12-ounce jars.”

By Monday, with peanut industry organizations ranging from Oklahoma and Texas to Georgia and Virginia on board, donations surpassed $70,000, and two truckloads of peanut butter had been delivered to Norfolk, Va., and loaded on a military ship, USS Sacagawea.

The Sacagawea left port late Tuesday, and the peanut butter will arrive in Haiti Friday and will be distributed through Operation Blessing, which loaded the cargo and is escorting it to Haiti which will insure the peanut butter will make its way quickly into distribution channels. The relief shipment also includes bottled water, water purification equipment, and baby food.

The peanut coalition is working with Tara Foods and ConAgra to obtain the peanut butter. The J.M. Smucker Company has donated a truckload of peanut butter.

More shipments are planned with the next load of peanut butter to be delivered next week to Miami, where it will be distributed to Haiti through Food for the Poor, of Coconut Creek, Fla., and the Catholic Relief Service, of Baltimore, Md., two nonprofits with a long-standing presence in Haiti.

Birdsong and other peanut industries have already been actively involved with a charity in Haiti the past two years called Meds & Food For Kids which makes a therapeutic peanut-based food — Medika Mamba — that effectively fights severe malnutrition in children.

Peanut butter is the perfect food in disaster relief situations — it does not have to be refrigerated, does not require cooking, and delivers a nutritional punch that is life-sustaining.

“Most agencies, understandably, just want cash donations,” stated Wells. “However, when you mention peanut butter, they quickly find a way to take that donation.”

Peanut Butter for Haiti

Anyone wanting to assist this relief project can mail tax deductible contributions to: EC 2055 - PNB for Haiti, P.O. Box 725, Blakely, GA 39823.

Make checks payable to: “Early County 2055” and note “pnb for Haiti.”

E-mail donation information to Sally Wells at stabb@birdsong-peanuts. com or Lisa Collins at lcollins@earlycounty2055. com.