Help hand-deliver IBEW 483’s peanut butter haul Wednesday

TACOMA (May 11, 2015) –As always, the affiliates of the Pierce County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO will deliver for area food banks this week. But you can help hand-deliver this year’s haul of peanut butter.

Last year’s reigning champion in the PCCLC’s peanut butter drive, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 483, have surpassed their goal for this year and plan to set up a bucket-brigade-style human chain to hand-deliver more than 3,483 jars of peanut butter from the IBEW 483 doors at 3525 S. Alder St. to the IBEW 76 building a block away in time for the PCCLC’s May 13 Delegate Meeting, which is the deadline to turn in donations. The peanut butter will then go to Pierce County’s Emergency Food Network.

Volunteers are needed to help hand-deliver the peanut butter. Wear your union colors and come to the IBEW 76 Hall, 3049 S. 36th St., by 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13. If you can’t make it by then, get there when you can, and you can relieve someone on the line.

Because her members met her challenge goal of 3,483 jars, IBEW 483 Business Manager Alice Phillips, who also serves on the board of the Pierce County Emergency Food Network, will be there dressed as Batman. She will be joined by EFN Executive Director Helen McGovern-Pilant, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland and others, possibly including Robin. And there will be a drone with a camera to capture all the action!

Because one in five households in Pierce County rely on food banks, The Emergency Food Network will distribute the donated peanut butter through its network of local food banks just as most school lunch programs are suspended for the summer months leaving thousands of children without a reliable source of nutrition.