Washington Trust’s “Pack Your Lunch & Donate the Difference” Day for PB Xpress
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Is there anything better than a PB&J for lunch?
Not really, and Washington Trust's PB Xpress “Pack Your Lunch and Donate the Difference” day gives the community a chance to have an old-fashioned sandwich for lunch and make a difference for hungry Rhode Island families.
PB&J day is Friday, April 1
Scheduled for Friday, April 1, the “Pack Your Lunch” campaign aims to inspire people to pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for work – instead of buying lunch – and make an online donation in the amount they would have spent on lunch, to the PB Xpress to benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Participants can make their online donations here.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Pack Your Lunch & Donate the Difference is an easy way for the community to get involved by donating to the PB Xpress peanut butter drive to help local families in need,” said Joe MarcAurele, chairman, president and CEO of Washington Trust. “We’re simply asking people to bring their favorite peanut butter sandwich to lunch on April 1st and donate what they would have spent on lunch to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.”
MarcAurele added that a little goes a long way. “A five-dollar online donation enables the Food Bank to purchase four jars of peanut butter at wholesale prices," he said.
The PB Xpress is an annual regional peanut butter drive – established and led by Washington Trust – to collect tons of much-needed nutritious peanut butter for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. This year’s peanut butter drive started on March 1 and runs through April 30.
Guess who is making PB&Js on Thursday...
To set the stage, as well as an example, for the campaign, Governor Lincoln D. Chafee and Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff will join MarcAurele at the Rhode Island State House on Thursday, March 31 for a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich luncheon.
The luncheon will include business and community leaders and legislators from across the State, gathered to hear about Rhode Island’s hunger problem and how the PB Xpress is making an impact. Representatives from the Cox Communications, Pawsox, Trinity Rep, RI Monthly Magazine and others will also “roll up their sleeves” with the Governor, MarcAurele and Schiff, make themselves a sandwich with the food supplies provided and later, make online donations to the PB Xpress with the money they would have spent on buying lunch.
“Given that one out of every three people served by the Food Bank is a child, we appreciate what Washington Trust is doing through the PB Xpress campaign to help our hungry neighbors,” said Schiff.
The PB Xpress
Now in its 11th year, the PB Xpress has collected more than 87 tons of peanut butter for the food bank over the last 10 years. Washington Trust focuses on this product-specific food drive to help reverse Rhode Island’s hunger rate rather than a general food drive because peanut butter is high in protein and popular for both children and families, but expensive for struggling families. Also, peanut butter is one of the most in-demand items of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
For more information about the 11th annual PB Xpress campaign, visit www.peanutbutterbank.com or find PB Xpress on Facebook. Both sites provide campaign donation information and facts about hunger in Rhode Island.
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