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News In a Nutshell | August 30, 2022
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Peanut Butter & Beyond: School Nutrition &
STEM Contest
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The universe is getting nutty! Peanuts deliver 7 grams of
powerful protein to help fuel student STEM adventures. School nutrition pros
and STEM educators who submit the best idea in the galaxy will win prizes
valued at $10,000, including a virtual visit from STEM advocate Astronaut
Starbright, mobile STEM labs, peanutty prizes for students and more from the
National Peanut Board!
ENTRY FORM
3…2…1…we have
liftoff! DYK peanut butter has been to space? It’s true. Astronauts make cosmic
versions of PB&Js for a tasty snack. And, here on Earth, NASA controllers
eat peanuts for good luck during shuttle launches.
From scientist George Washington Carver to the botany of the plant,
peanuts and peanut butter are the star of many STEM stories. Check out
our Fun Facts Poster
here.
Now the National Peanut Board asks school nutrition
professionals and educators to bond together like two elements and submit the
best idea in the nutty-verse featuring peanuts and a STEM topic.
Download Lesson
Inspirations here.
View Judging
Criteria here.
The grand-prize winning school will receive a
live virtual visit from youth STEM-advocate Astronaut Starbright (aka Taylor Richardson), peanut buttery prizes, mobile
STEM labs and a peanut butter donation to their local food bank. Two runner-up
schools will receive $1,000 grant for a STEM or healthy eating project (like
mobile STEM labs, school garden, food pantry, science fair, backpack program,
educational content subscription).
“Peanut Butter
& Beyond is a great way for school nutrition services and academic
departments to collaborate,” said Lauren Highfill Williams, NPB director of
communications. “From efficient water usage to an impressive nutritional
profile, peanuts lend themselves well to both studying and eating! This
campaign will energize schools to serve peanut foods more often, and increase
awareness of our allergy management resources at PeanutsinSchools.org.”
Visit NationalPeanutBoard.org
for more details.
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National Peanut Board Supports Family Medicine and the National
Medical Association
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The National Peanut Board (NPB) continues to support
education and outreach to physicians with reliable information about the
importance of peanut allergy prevention. This month, NPB connected with leaders
from the National Medical Association (NMA), the nation’s oldest and largest
organization representing African American physicians and health professionals
in the United States, at their annual conference in Atlanta. The Family
Medicine Section and the Section on Allergy, Asthma and Immunology partnered to
convene the Food Allergy Symposium. A panel of experts reviewed the latest
guidelines and research on food allergies, treatment and prevention of food
allergies, and issues around healthcare access health equity for those with
food allergy. Sherry Coleman Collins, registered dietitian, and consultant for
NPB, spoke to the group in her evidence-based session encouraging all in
attendance to embrace the latest recommendations to reduce peanut allergies in
their communities. Dozens of physicians from across the country participated in
the well-received session.
In addition to participating in the symposium, NPB hosted a
dinner at Asha Gomez’s Third Space for leaders of NMA. At the dinner, practitioners
from across the country and from a variety of backgrounds, including academia,
family medicine, and advocacy, learned about NPB’s efforts in education and
outreach for peanut allergy prevention. The group shared their experience and
invaluable insights into who should be “at the table” to help expand the
adoption of early introduction. The group also shared valuable insight into how
to reach more African American families with this information and identified
other groups for potential collaboration. NPB is grateful for the opportunity
to continue to serve as a valuable resource for healthcare practitioners,
including members of NMA, as we seek to eliminate peanut allergies in future
generations.
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Lee County Brings Peanuts Back to School
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National Peanut Board (NPB) consultant Sherry Coleman
Collins, MS, RDN, LD, presented during the first general session at the
Southern Peanut Growers Conference in July. The session focused on how schools
can safely manage allergens and featured real-life examples of how schools do
this.
In Lee County Schools (Florida), Amy Carroll, MBA, RD, who
presented alongside Coleman Collins, and her colleagues were caught between a
rock and a hard place when supply chain issues meant they couldn’t get many of
the foods on their menu last year. When their supplier stopped servicing their
district altogether, they partnered with a neighboring school district,
adopting their menu. That neighboring district had individually wrapped
PB&J sandwiches on the menu. Carroll believed their district’s peanut ban,
implemented 18 years prior, didn’t make sense and was ready to champion the
reversal. With the support of the school nutrition director and their
administration, Carroll led the charge to bring back peanut butter to Lee
County Schools’ 97,000 students.
At the heart of the effort by Carroll and Lee County Schools
was communication. Carroll and her team created a novel internal and external
communication plan that took four months to craft and unveil. In addition to
emails to staff, parents and the community, they also communicated the change
via:
·
Custom
digizine called Bringing Back the Peanut: Peanut
allergy community education guide
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TV Podcast featuring the school nutrition
director, wellness supervisor, and NPB’s registered dietitian nutritionist
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Podcast show with their PR partner, NxtGen
Network
Their efforts were even covered by the local TV station. By
educating their community, in addition to providing food allergy management
training for their staff, Lee County Schools is a great example of how to
successfully reintroduce peanut foods to schools.
NPB has partnered with Carroll to share Lee County’s success
story in multiple ways, including through presentations at the 2022 Southern
Peanut Growers Conference, the Florida School Nutrition Association Annual
Meeting and a School Nutrition Association webinar.
To help schools like Lee County and
others bring back and keep peanuts on the menu, NPB has a one-stop resource at
PeanutsinSchools.org.
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Planting Seeds for Prevention Deep in Peanut Country
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After nearly two full years of accessing continuing
education courses virtually, healthcare providers heading into the summer were
as eager as anyone was to trade “high tech” for “high touch” once again. And,
with equal enthusiasm, the National Peanut Board (NPB) team seized the moment
by launching “Family Medicine in Peanut Country,” an effort to ensure
physicians in even the most remote areas of peanut growing states are champions
for early introduction.
Most people rightly acknowledge the role and importance of
pediatricians in preparing new parents during the critical – and short – window
for introducing peanut foods. With roughly one in five children cared for by a
family physician who also treats mom, dad and grandparents often, too, family
medicine has a pivotal role to play in making early introduction the standard
of care, as well. And, given family doctors are especially common in rural
areas, they are essential to ensuring infants have the same strong start –
regardless of geography.
Thanks to the help of the Georgia Academy of Family
Physicians, NPB and early introduction education played prominently at this
year’s summer gatherings for that state, plus Florida, Alabama, Texas and
Virginia. Dr. Jay Gruhlkey, who grew up on his family’s farm in the Texas
Panhandle, led his state’s continuing education session, while Dr. Theresa
Jacobs, recently retired from a community and public medicine outside Atlanta,
developed the curriculum and served as instructor for the Florida, Alabama and
Virginia sessions. Attendees also were able to pick up materials and tips for
breaking through common barriers to introduction at an NPB exhibit hall booth.
“We cast the net far – and efficiently – by partnering with
national provider groups like the American Academy of Family Physicians,”
explained Mark Dvorak, who has helped shepherd the board’s allergy prevention
work as member of the Golin team. “But going local, like we’ve done this year,
also fuels the grassroots. Like Dr. Gruhlkey in Texas, we’ve connected with
more than a few doctors who know their way around a peanut farm. That’s a
combination you just can’t beat.”
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The Peanut Podcast Episode 10: Peanut Production Across
Regions
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Most of us know the basics of how peanuts grow, but unless
you’ve been able to spend a good amount of time with peanut growers across the
U.S., you may not know much about the different challenges and practices
growers face throughout the Peanut Belt. In this episode of the Peanut Podcast,
we spoke to peanut growers in each region to learn what makes that area unique.
Below is an abbreviated recap of the episode. To read the full episode recap,
click here.
The Southeast region consists of Florida, Georgia, Alabama,
Louisiana and Mississippi. Lonnie Gilbert is a third-generation farmer from
Marianna, Florida, that grows runner peanuts. To prepare for peanut season,
farmers go through a process called moldboarding or breaking the land. This is
when farmers use a special type of plow that cuts, lifts and turns the soil so
it’s at least partly upside down. This improves soil drainage and creates a
good seedbed for planting. Farmers start planting sometime between mid-April
and late-May and that the major pests they worry about in his area are thrips
and nematodes.
The Virginia-Carolinas region consists of North Carolina,
South Carolina and Virginia. We spoke with NPB Board member Neal Baxley in
Marion County, South Carolina. According to Neal, before planting runners and
Virginias, they till the soil and make raised beds to plant the peanuts in.
They aim to plant around the end of April and continue throughout May. After
planting, Neal likes to apply a land plaster to help give the peanuts the
calcium they need in the pegging zone.
Normally, Texas is included with the Southwest region. We
spoke to Mason Becker, an NPB alternate who lives about 40 miles southwest of
Lubbock. Mason grows all four types of peanuts, as well as organic. Mason
starts planting his Virginias around the last week of April, then will plant
the rest according to how fast they grow. He’ll start harvesting his Valencias
in the middle of September but waits until October 10 rolls around to harvest
the rest.
The rest of the Southwest region consists of Oklahoma,
Missouri, New Mexico and Arkansas. Austin White is a fifth-generation farmer
who grows Virginia peanuts in Southwest, Oklahoma, along the Red River. Austin
says before planting peanuts they either moldboard or harvest the previous
year’s wheat then strip till it and put peanuts in. They try to plant the first
week of May and then will start fungicide spraying around July 4. Then
late-September into October is harvest time for them. According to Austin, they
are only able to grow peanuts on irrigated land.
We also spoke with Bennie Branch, who is president of Kelly
Manufacturing Company. According to Bennie, farmers in different regions may
have to use different equipment, especially when it comes to harvesting. “In
the peanut inverter line, we have to main styles, a rigid inverter and a flex
peanut inverter,” Bennie said. “In the rigid inverter, all six rows are tied together
on a common toolbar, so they all dig at the same level. And on a flex inverter,
each two row section floats independently of that front tool bar; and this
actually started over in Alabama, where it’s very common for farmers to have
rows that are not parallel to the terraces. So, they end up going over terraces
at angles.”
Learn more about production across the regions by
listening to the full episode of The Peanut Podcast or by reading the full
episode 10 recap here.
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Recipe: Get-Up-and-Go Peanut Crunch Bar
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This mixture of delicious, dried fruits, cereal and smooth
peanut butter helps give the best fuel for the day. This breakfast bar is great
for parents and kids alike. Find the full recipe here.
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National Peanut Board
Calendar for
August 30 - August 26, 2022 |
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News in a Nutshell is a bi-monthly e-newsletter from the National Peanut Board with the latest on USA-grown peanuts in the media, marketing and promotions, food allergy news, grower resources and much more. |
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Marketing & Communications Editorial Team |
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Ryan Lepicier Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Lauren Highfill Williams Director |
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Lindsay Stevens
Specialist
Sherry Coleman Collins, MS, RD, LDN
Consultant
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Catherine Karanja
Specialist
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