Mariners’ Gonzales launches peanut butter drive for Northwest Harvest

Marco and Monica Gonzales have launched a virtual peanut butter drive to help Northwest Harvest meet the increasing demand for healthy food due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mariners pitcher and his wife live full time in Seattle and the recent news stories of how the pandemic has impacted families prompted their attention.

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“It’s been heartbreaking and scary to see how much our state has been affected by this,” said Monica. “We have heard almost 1 million have lost their jobs across the state. Our food insecure families has gone from 850,000 to 1.7 million and it is expected to grow to 2.4 million before the end of this pandemic. We are hoping to spread the word to spark action for others as well.”

“The spotlight of this are kids and kids who are living in food insecure homes mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Marco. “To us, and hopefully to a lot of others, this should be a priority across not only our state but across the country. A little thing like donating some money for peanut butter can go a long way.”

The Gonzales family saw firsthand what impact the purchase of peanut butter can have when the assisted on the front lines making 500 peanut butter sandwiches for Northwest Harvest at their Sodo Community Market. Monica, a nutritionist and personal trainer appreciated the care she saw Northwest Harvest display in filling nutritional needs with quality food including peanut butter.

“We chose peanut butter because it is shelf stable, it is nutritious, is is a great source of energy and high in protein,” she said. It is something that is desirable for kids its also avail it is one of the few reliable shelf stable items we can buy. About $10 can make about a hundred sandwiches.”

The goal for the peanut butter drive is to raise $40,000 with the Gonzales’ and Mariners Care matching a portion of donations.

“This is our passion,” said Marco. “This is something we want to do even post baseball, be involved in our community giving back to the people who mean the most to us. Really just using the platform that we have been blessed with to be able to do some good with it. It certainly is giving us something to look forward to and giving us some action during these tough times and hopefully bring a little hope and positivity to everybody as well.”

If you would like to donate to the Gonzales Family Peanut Butter Drive, information can be found here.

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