The fact that we still have hunger in a country like the United States is amazing by itself. I mean, we hear about it around the world that there is hunger, but you actually don't think that people may be suffering from hunger in Houston, for instance. [MUSIC PLAYING] When we go out and tell people, "Would you like to come and make peanut butter to help bless the lives of other people?" They go, "Who's making peanut butter? You don't make peanut butter here." Yeah, on the north side of Houston you just come to our little peanut butter factory, and you just see what is going on.

People that go to the peanut butter factory are just completely amazed. First, I think how small the operation is and what it can produce. I had no idea that the Mormon Church had a peanut butter factory here or anywhere. The Church utilizes this facility 30 or 40 days a year. And so that means that the other 10, 11 months of the year, the factory remains relatively dormant. And that's why the Church entered into the partnership with the Houston Food Bank. The Church provides the facility. The Food Bank provides the funding for the peanuts, but someone has to go in and get on the production line and make the peanut butter. And that's where the corporate volunteers come in.

If you think about what the Houston Food Bank does, we distribute food to families in need. And what we're looking for is shelf stable as much as possible, high nutritional value, and the thing that helps us the most is the products that the family would otherwise have difficulty paying for. When you put those things together, peanut butter is actually the perfect product. Because of the change in the economy, and the down swing that we are experiencing now, families have lost their jobs. They're not able to survive. And so we're needing to give them more help. We have doubled the number of families coming to our food pantry in the last year. Peanut butter is one of the foods that the Food Bank never has enough of. As soon as it comes in, it seems like it's gone again. It's one of the most popular foods with children and families, and that's that majority of who we serve. In our case, where we're dealing with a fundamentally unacceptable problem, I mean, hunger in a wealthy society doesn't make sense, and it is unacceptable. We have been fortunately very blessed to have Houstonians and Houston companies embrace this mission as something that they really want to get behind. The primary things that we're right now looking for to make that partnership work even better is more volunteers to come to work in the cannery, and you want to talk about a fun experience? It's unbeatable. We just need to get more corporations to sign up for a day to come in and make some peanut butter. Our volunteers love this project because they said of all the things that they do, when they come to the end of their four-hour shift, they can see five pallets of peanut butter. Houston likes to get things done. Houston believes that things can get done. So if you look at last year, there's about 1,000 volunteers, and almost 100,000 jars of peanut butter. That's about 50,000 families helped. So you think about a group of 20 people coming in, and they spend that four-hour shift, and they have a good time. And they end up helping thousands of families. Thousands of families, four hours of your time. I mean, what an amazing thing to go home knowing. America in general really is interested in the peanut butter canning project specifically, or in fact the peanut butter canning project is our most requested project. People really enjoy doing it. It makes a difference for our employees to see that our company is willing to give back to the community, and I think it really helps with our employee morale. I think it makes us all feel good about coming to work every day for a company that has that kind of commitment. There's nothing better than service work to bring a group together. When you're providing service for those in need, it just makes those that participate feel closer to one another. So this is the best team-building exercise that you can possibly have. I think it kind of just breaks the ice. That way the next time I go to a meeting, I know, hey, I remember you, right next to me. We're, you know, twisting the caps on the peanut butter. I don't know what's more fun-- you actually doing the work, or sort of looking at your coworkers in their hair nets, and, you know, doing something completely different from what you normally see them do. At Mustang, when we go as a group, we're all friends at work, and we get along great. But any time you get outside the normal work environment, you kind of open up a little bit and see a different side of people. So it brings people, I think, closer together. My first time, there was a big banner that had all the represented by pictures of all the companies that participated in the Food Bank that year and made peanut butter. And I was really amazed at how many companies in the Houston area participated. It really made me feel good to be a part of that. We have people from all levels of the company out there. From entry-level employees to executives, and it's just really nice to sort of all be on an even playing field, working side by side to do something as meaningful as making peanut butter for people that really need it. We couldn't do what we do without the Mormon Church and the great partnership we have with them and the corporations throughout Houston. It's been a blessing to be a part of. All of the men and women who volunteer their time have a great sense of satisfaction when they leave here, that they're able to volunteer a few hours of their time to feed people. And that's huge. The real satisfaction, the real enjoyment out of it is being able to help somebody that you don't necessarily know. You're not expecting to get anything back from that person. Makes you really feel good about being human and living on the earth, and helping one another, because I think that's what it's all about. It's something you can do that isn't like a direct financial cost to a company. You know, letting your employees go volunteer, giving them a couple hours a month, that's an easy thing to do. And it's incredible that our company allows us to do that. It's just a testament to the leaders of the company, the companies that are involved, that they care about the people in their community, the people that they do business with, the people that they're friends with, their next-door neighbors. It's warming to know that you're helping somebody, whether it's someone who's always been in need, or someone who's recently in need. It's a gift. You're giving a gift.