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Read about the Bayonnais Peanut Butter Project
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BAYONNAIS PEANUT BUTTER PROJECT
BACKGROUND: “Clorox” and “battery acid” are words used to describe severe hunger in Bayonnais, an agricultural community located in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley. It is common not to eat one day of the week, and some people who live in the mountains may go an entire week without eating a proper meal. Most children have distended abdomens due to protein deficiency and malnutrition, and some students cry in school because they are hungry.
VISION: Inspired by Project Peanut Butter, the Bayonnais Peanut Butter Project (BPBP) seeks to address hunger and malnutrition in Bayonnais, Haiti by increasing consumption of locally-produced, quality peanut butter.
PAST: A well-respected project manager and a motorized grinder were needed to start the project. A couple organizations and private donors provided the necessary funding, and from January to July of 2009, approximately 375 containers of peanut butter were sold at subsidized prices. Buyers included primarily students who observed increases in their attention spans at school. However, sales dried up with the subsidies and rising seasonal peanut prices. In July/August, peanut market research and cost analysis were performed in order to determine an effective price point.
PRESENT: If BPBP buys peanuts in December/January when prices are lowest, stores them in the local food bank, sells 127 tubs (32-oz) of peanut butter per month at $3.25 (US) per tub, the project will pay for itself, including labor of the two women who run it. (This unsubsidized price is 35% less expensive than current local prices and 50% less expensive than Port-au-Prince.) $3773 start-up capital would fund the project for the 8 months (peanut storage duration) at a production level of 160 tubs per month; selling all tubs would amount to a $387.30 return on the investment. Impact would be measured by a list of consumers and the average number of family members benefiting from the peanut butter. The market-based model is simple, scalable, and could bud off of any existing, respectable organization in Haiti.
AFFILIATION: BPBP has a Full Belly Project peanut sheller. Meds and Food for Kids has given extensive support, including expertise, a better grinder, and aphlatoxin test kits. Plastic Packaging Corporation has donated 1000 plastic containers and welcomes further participation. JLA has offered laboratory assistance. Isle of Hope Methodist Church and Savannah Country Day School have provided financial support in addition to private donations.
If you would like to help, please make checks payable to “South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church,” earmarked “OFCB-BPBP.” (All donations are 100% tax deductible, and SMPC provides printed acknowledgments quarterly.)
You may send them to:
South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church
Attn: MK Zagora
8601 Bryant Farms Rd
Charlotte, NC 28277-1606
704-544-0404