share | TRY IT IN YOUR TOWN small project, big impact
PUT ON A PB&J DRIVE A girl’s smart plan spurs a community to send in the spreads. BY LUCY CASALE
The Town Hatfield, Massachusetts
The Kid Lavery Greenfield, age 9 (center, above photo)
The Idea
How It Works With her family’s help, Lavery posted flyers around town asking for
“
We’d find jars in our mailbox, hanging from the door, and sitting on our stoop.”
donations of PB&J. She got her school to call for donations and set up a collection box by the office. Soon, the jars were stacking up, and not just at school. “We’d find jars in our mailbox, hanging from the door, and sitting on our stoop,” says Renée. That year, Lavery collected 175 jars and $500 in donations for the cause. In October 2014, she organized the drive again, and this time, friends at two
other schools joined her. All told, Lavery and her friends sorted, weighed, and delivered a whopping 1,009 pounds of peanut butter and jelly—too many jars to count. “It was kind of awesome,” says Lavery. Hearing about Lavery’s work, Teddie Peanut Butter donated a full pallet (1,008 jars) of peanut butter to the food bank, adding to the total.
Why Try It? “It helps people!” says Lavery. Also, “It’s fun and makes you feel proud.” Adds Renée: “From a parent perspective, it’s easy. You just throw an extra jar into your shopping cart.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY HEATH ROBBINS; STYLING BY CATRINE KELTY
For someone in a love-hate relationship with PB&J (Today, “I’m sick of it! My dad packs it for me every single day!” Tomorrow, who knows? “I go through phases”), Lavery Greenfield of Hatfield, Massachusetts, can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. That’s because since 2013, Lavery has held the
October Peanut Butter and Jelly Jar Drive—her invention—to collect these two sandwich spreads for her town’s local food bank. With major success. Rewind to September 2013, when Lavery, her mom, Renée, dad, Chris, and brother, Nolan, now age 5, toured the local food bank. Lavery recalls their guide asking them to guess what foods children requested most. The answer: peanut butter and jelly. And that’s when Lavery dreamed up a drive.
NOW YOU TRY IT SEP T EMBER 2015
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Start with a visit to your local food bank to ask what items are most needed, Lavery advises. Then meet with the principal of your school for permission to organize a drive there.
