Creekside Park Schools' Peanut Butter Drive Collects 12,138 lbs of Peanut Butter to Combat Local Food Insecurity in The Woodlands Area

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Three TISD schools, Creekside Forest Elementary, Creekview Elementary and Creekside Park Junior High have held peanut butter drives to collect thousands of jars of peanut butter for the annual peanut butter drive held by The Cheesecake Factory restaurant in The Woodlands.

For several years, The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has partnered with Feeding America®, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, to provide relief to children and adults in need. According to their website, they've donated more than $5.2M to Feeding America since 2008 through the sale of our specially designated cheesecakes. During September, in honor of Hunger Action Month, staff members volunteer to support the Foundation by contributing Peanut Butter to local Feeding America® member food banks. Through the company's annual Peanut Butter Drive, more than 100,000 pounds of peanut butter is collected, stocking food bank shelves just in time for Back-to-School lunches for hungry kids.

Five years ago, Alex Leslie, PTO member at Creekside Forest Elementary School approached The Cheesecake Factory to donate a catered lunch for one of the school PTO's monthly teacher appreciation luncheons. After several attempts, the local restaurant's manager agreed to donate a lunch IF Alex could help employees at her restaurant collect enough peanut butter for The Woodlands Mall location to win the Company's annual Peanut Butter Drive for Feeding America. Alex and the CFES PTO got to work, and sponsored a competition between classes to see who could bring in the most peanut butter. Each day Alex and a group of volunteers counted jars and arranged them into creative sculptures-- rocket ships, boats, towers, you name it! This year's display was based on the District-wide theme 'Destination Excellence'. The kids couldn't get enough of it, and looked forward to a new display each day. In the first year Creekside Forest Elementary School families donated several thousand pounds of peanut butter-- and The Cheesecake Factory donated the teachers' appreciation luncheon as promised.

The annual drive has now become a cherished CFES tradition, with kids looking forward to it each year. A pizza party donated by local The Cheesecake Factory goes to the first, second and third places. Alex had to start giving courtesy heads-up calls to all area stores that carry peanut butter to alert them that they'll need to order more than usual for the dates of the drive. As the deadline for donations nears, it's not uncommon for peanut butter shelves to be totally emptied in a 10 mile radius of Creekside, and to see SUVs pull up to school fully loaded with so many jars they require flat bed trollies to deliver piled-up peanut butter pallets into the foyer of the school. One parent has joked about sending an 18-wheeler of peanut butter next year!

This year, two other TISD campuses in Creekside have joined the hunger-relief crusade. Both Creekview Elementary and Creekside Park Junior High also held peanut butter drives. The junior high's drive ended today, October 8th, and the combined total from all three schools has reached 12,138 lbs! That number includes Creekside's HEB store's store donation of 1,000 HEB-branded jars of peanut butter to the effort-- adding nearly 1,125 lbs to the eventual total.

In Harris County, an estimated 1 in 4 children are food-insecure, and there are approximately 724,750 food-insecure individuals. According to TexasChildrens.org, food insecurity can have significant negative implications on a person's health, including higher rates of chronic diseases and mental health problems. When paired with a loaf of bread, every pound of peanut butter can feed a family of four.

Peanut butter donated by TISD families will head to the Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries (TEAM) in Tomball to help feed children and families in need. And the 1,200 lb donation from HEB will be sent to the Montgomery County Food Bank. And, if The Cheesecake Factory's website is still correct, Creekside Park's peanut butter drive likely makes up over 1/10th of their nation-wide peanut butter haul this year!

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