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| Pictured: Members of the Houghton College chapter of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Club, making sandwiches to donate to St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy in Buffalo. |
Houghton, N.Y.—Houghton freshman Billy McCrae’s innovative community service project now has a chapter at Houghton College, supporting a Roman Catholic Mission in Buffalo through the gift of PB&J.
When McCrae was in fifth grade, his best friend’s parents both lost their jobs in the span of a month. Their family was struggling financially and having a lot of trouble finding enough food.
McCrae decided to make his friend one of his favorite foods, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Afterwards, McCrae and his mom talked to the youth mission leader at their church to see if they could do anything to help others in similar circumstances. And the Peanut Butter & Jelly Club was born.
Since its creation in 2011, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Club in New Jersey has made over 29,000 sandwiches. The club donates their sandwiches to a local soup kitchen in the nearby low-income city of Camden.
“I’ve gone and volunteered at the places I have delivered sandwiches to, and just watching these kids stand in line with their parents to get food is just heartbreaking,” said McCrae. “It’s things that you never want to see.”
When McCrae applied to Houghton College, he wrote his application essay on his work in Camden. After reading the essay, his admissions counselor emailed him to ask if he would consider bringing the club to Western New York.
During McCrae’s interview for the Houghton Honors program, his interviewers also loved the idea of the club and encouraged McCrae to bring it to Houghton. McCrae listed this encouragement, and the planning that followed, as a primary reason he decided to attend Houghton.
Since September, the club has donated an average of 400 sandwiches per week to St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy in Buffalo. The Mission’s primary focus has been to help feed women and children in need, which McCrae listed as the reason he chose them when searching for partnering agencies.
McCrae is quick to deflect credit to the volunteers who turn out each week, and to the Fillmore Dollar General that has made the weekly shopping trip go smoothly. “Dollar General has been incredibly helpful,” he said. “It’s obviously not easy handling 40 loaves of bread and 20 jars of peanut butter and jelly, but I literally just show up and they have everything picked out and ready for me,” McCrae added.
The PB&J club will also collect donations at the 2nd annual “Christmas on the Court,” when the Houghton women’s basketball team hosts Hamilton College on December 6 at 7 p.m. Fans who bring peanut butter, jelly or bread will have the opportunity to compete for prizes, and more importantly, help further the mission to care for women and children in Buffalo at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy.
