‘When you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you're always going to think back to the Peanut Butter Bowl and it will kind of put a warm feeling in your heart thinking that you're trying to help the people in our community.’
HAYS COUNTY — Hays County schools are some of 100 across the state of Texas that dedicated their first football game of the season as the Peanut Butter Bowl to support fellow members of the community.
The Peanut Butter Bowl was started in 2016 in San Antonio with one game between two high schools in the same city to collect peanut butter and monetary donations that would serve an organization that feeds food insecure children in the San Antonio area. This continued in 2017 and 2018 with these two schools and nearly 15,000 jars were collected during three bowls.
In 2019, the Peanut Butter Bowl efforts were expanded to four games and included six more high school coaches and their communities. Then, in 2020, there were six games and 23,000 jars collected, including several online donations at $2 per jar. In 2021, 43,000 jars were collected and in 2022-23, more than 75 tons of peanut butter were donated across the board.
Now, there are 100 Texas high schools, along with their respective communities, participating in 2024, including five locally: Lehman High School, Johnson High School (Buda), Hays High School, Dripping Springs High School and Wimberley High School.
And the contributions through the Peanut Butter Bowl help local efforts in feeding the community as event’s coordinators help each high school/team select an organization to give their donations to:
• Hays High School: HaysHope2Go
• Johnson High School: HaysHope2Go
• Lehman High School: HaysHope2Go
• Dripping Springs High School: Ancora's Dripping With Hope and Dripping Springs Helping Hands Food Pantry
• Wimberley High School: Wimberley Crisis Bread Basket Trey Williams of Ancora Ministries helped co-found HaysHope2Go, which is a project that alleviates hunger amongst Hays CISD students who are most in need, in 2019. Food insecurity is a major barrier to having students focus on their work in class on their way to reaching their full academic potential. A component of this is the backpack program that fed more than 600 kids per week last school year to ensure that they had enough to eat on the weekend and school breaks; more than 160,000 meals were provided between September and June, Williams said.
This school year, Williams and the HaysHope2Go team hope to feed 800-850 kids each week, which comes to about $3,500 per week in food supplies, when they often find themselves dependent on the meals that the schools serve to nourish them throughout the day.
“I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want our kids to have everything they need to be successful and having enough to eat is a huge part of helping them be at their best,” said Williams.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANCORA MINISTRIES Johnson High School head football coach Sam Carlin poses for a photo with a Peanut Butter Bowl poster. Hays County schools joined 100 total schools across the state of Texas to support members of their respective communities by donating jars of peanut butter.
For JHS head football coach Sam Carlin, the Peanut Butter Bowl gives students an opportunity to give back to other students and their families who may be less fortunate than they are.
“You have some kids that are affected by this, and at the end of the day, a lot of us have kids that aren't. Some of the kids that we managed to keep in our program here, it's kind of one of those deals where they're fortunate to be in the home situation that they're in. They don't necessarily have to worry about going hungry and this just gives us that little bit of an opportunity to remind them, ‘Hey, there are kids out there that are hungry,’” Carlin explained. “Unless you’ve dealt with it, I don't know if you ever truly understand it, but at least we can start opening their eyes to some of this stuff.
And it just gives us an opportunity to give back.
These kids, especially teenagers, we live so much in the moment and unless something's directly impacting us, we don't always give much attention to it.”
Ed Barrio, who is an assistant football coach for Hays High School, said that after moving to the area about two months ago, he has enjoyed witnessing how the schools have poured into the community.
“I think it really means something special … We didn't have something like that back home, where I'm from, El Paso, Texas. It's been a really unique thing to see a whole school pretty much get on the same page and have it under that Peanut Butter Bowl tag.
It sounds like it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it is,” Barrio said. “Even at our volleyball game, every single volleyball player was announced for their starting lineups and all that stuff and they each were holding a peanut butter jar that they donated. Seeing the peanut butter stack and seeing how competitive these coaches here around all sports on campus have taken it, it’s been a really special experience to see so far.”
The Peanut Butter Bowl sets the tone for the rest of the year, according to Barrio, not only as a school district, but as a community as a whole because everyone can agree on one universally correct goal: helping others.
“It’s what moves the needle. People in this community care about Hays High School, Hays CISD, our athletic teams and clubs. To start that in the beginning of the year kind of just sets the tone for the rest of the year knowing that we are Hays and as a community, we're here to help people in our community,” he explained. “I think it wouldn’t be as special at any other time period, maybe Thanksgiving [or] Christmas, but I'm hoping talking to people around trying to do something else like that, too, because it's something so cool and uniquely [that]I wouldn't want for it to end just at the start of the year … I think it shows you just how much we care about our own people here.
While the Peanut Butter Bowl is designated for the first game week, all of the schools hope that the benefit will continue even after the fourth quarter — and Wimberley ISD is no different.
“Any program that provides the opportunity for connection between WISD and our community is one that we will grasp. The community excitement surrounding the first home football game of the year is at such a high level and when you can combine that with a way to give back to those in our community that are in need — it's a win-win,” said WISD Communications Director Allen Bruggman. “We believe that participating in and promoting an effort like the Peanut Butter Bowl in our community has a benefit long after the game has been played and the jars have been distributed.
It raises awareness for local food pantries, like the Crisis Bread Basket, and helps to instill that culture of giving back that leads to flourishing communities.”
Additionally, Carlin said that he hopes to see the program expand even more: “We hope to make it where every Austin area school and program gets part of it soon in the near future.”
As of Thursday, Aug.
29, the following are the donation amounts and rankings of each Hays County school:
• HHS: 787 jars, 8th place
• LHS: 446 jars, 14th place
• DSHS: 430 jars, 16th place
• WHS: 18th place (jar number not provided)
• JHS: 353 jars, 21st place Online donations concluded for the Peanut Butter Bowl on Aug. 31. However, the community is still encouraged to donate to the local nonprofits and organizations. For more information about where to make a donation, visit the following links:
• HaysHope2Go: www.hayscisd.net/ hayshope2go
• Ancora Ministries: www.ancoraministries. org/home
• Dripping Springs Helping Hands: www.helpinghandsdrippingsprings. org
• Wimberley Crisis Bread Basket: www. crisisbreadbasket.org Details on the Peanut Butter Bowl can be found at www. peanutbutterbowl.com.
