Peanut Proud

Peanut Proud Inc. is a charity devoted to delivering peanuts, peanut butter and peanut -based therapeutic food (RUTF) to those in need both in the United States and in developing countries. We are an industry-wide, all-volunteer organization, so 100% of our funds help the hungry. Birdsong is proud to be a founding financial supporter and to have provided the volunteer manpower that ensures the success and continuation of Peanut Proud. Since the inception of Peanut Proud in Blakely, Georgia in 2009, Birdsong employees have served as the organization’s first two presidents and have provided over 10,000 hours of volunteer support.

Peanut Proud Inc. was established with three objectives:

  1. to unite the peanut community through an annual Peanut Proud Festival,
  2. to recognize excellence through an annual scholarship award to a graduate student whose education program includes food safety, and
  3. to provide peanuts and peanut products into the hands of those in need through three different humanitarian efforts – domestic hunger relief, international hunger relief, and emergency/disaster relief in the 11 peanut producing states.

Birdsong Peanuts provides support to each of these efforts annually and places a high priority on being a leader in all peanut industry humanitarian efforts.

As of 2014, Peanut Proud will continue its physical operations under the umbrella of the peanut industry’s broader humanitarian organization, Peanut Butter for the Hungry. This organization provides support for agricultural technologies that help improve peanut production in developing countries and increase the production of RUTF and RUSF—peanut-based nutritive medicine—and supplemental foods for malnourished populations.

Some of Peanut Proud’s efforts include:

 

  • Delivering eight truckloads of peanut butter in the immediate aftermath of the 2009 earthquake in Haiti to provide a healthy food source as well as hope to a people and nation devastated.
  • Launching “Project Giving Back” in 2011, to provide peanut butter along with backpacks of school supplies and peanut products, as a response to the catastrophic storms and tornadoes across seven southeastern states.
  • Partnering in 2013 with the grower organization in each peanut producing state to deliver over 200,000 jars of peanut butter to food banks in all 11 states.

For more information on Peanut Proud and information on how to donate, check out the website: www.peanutproud.org.