Peanut Butter Plan to feed the homeless spreads

[Guest guest]

The world is getting better, one peanut butter and jelly sandwich at a time.

It's also getting messier, but that can't be helped when a dozen

do-gooders get together on Valencia Street once a month, laden with

peanut butter, jelly, bread, sandwich bags and those flimsy plastic

knives that aren't much good for the serious work of spreading peanut

butter and changing the world.

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It's

called the Peanut Butter Plan. Like many of the best plans, it's

simple: Strangers get together, make peanut butter sandwiches and

immediately pass them out to homeless people. No federal subsidy, no

foundation, no vouchers. No official sanction from anybody. Just

strangers, good will and peanut butter.

Jory , a San Francisco children's book writer, got the idea for

the PBJ stealth campaign this spring. put forth the idea on

Facebook and, over the past few months, PBJ handouts have taken place

in Los Angeles; Berkeley; Phoenix; Little Rock, Ark.; Grand Rapids,

Mich.; Austin, Texas; and London.

"People are joining from all over the place," said. "I thought

it was about time to use a social networking site to do some good."

The monthly gathering took place the other evening around a

conference table inside a publishing house that had donated its office

for the cause. There was barely time for introductions before jars were

pulled out and sleeves were rolled up.

"There's something nostalgic about peanut butter and jelly," said

, organizer of the gathering. "It's comforting. Everybody ate

peanut butter and jelly as a kid. It's an old friend."

Some people make one sandwich at a time, slowly. Some make a dozen sandwiches at a time, lickety-split.

If there is anything complicated about a PBJ, it's getting the

proper ratio of PB to J. Put too much peanut butter and it's too dry.

Put too much jelly and it's too soggy.

"I started out 50-50," said volunteer Efrat Lelkes, a San Francisco

pediatrician. "But that's too much jelly. I think the proper ratio is

3-to-1, in favor of peanut butter."

And then, when the last glob was spread and the conference table was

scrubbed clean, dispatched some sandwich-laden volunteers to the

Tenderloin and some others to the Haight and South of Market. He led a

small group through the Mission District and there was no shortage of

people who found the idea of a complimentary peanut-butter-and-jelly

sandwich to be just the thing.

The sandwich distribution is best done in pairs, said, because

you never can tell. On Valencia Street, one homeless fellow began

screaming that he didn't want any "poison sandwiches" and started

shoving the young woman who was seeking to give him one. But the buddy

system worked and the fellow was persuaded to shuffle off.

"No good turn goes unpunished," his would-be benefactor said.

Outside the BART station at 16th and Mission streets, a dozen folks

accepted sandwiches. Robin Holmberg took one sandwich for herself and

one for Ben, a black Lab.

Holmberg, an auto mechanic who hasn't had any cars to work on for a

while, said she had not eaten all day. She said she was waiting for a

check, although she wasn't sure which check.

"I'm at the lowest of the low, but why be depressed about it?" she

said, chewing thoughtfully on her sandwich. "It's not me, it's the

economy. I'll be all right."

When the sandwiches were gone, and his fellow sandwich makers

retired to a nearby tavern for a beer. The camaraderie of doing

something nice, along with the beers, made everyone feel pretty good

and some of the strangers exchanged phone numbers. The peanut butter

and jelly sandwich, Jory said, is everyone's friend.

Nobody doesn't want one. They're cheap, easy, and they hold up for a couple of days, if you don't overdo the jelly.

"The smallest actions make the biggest difference," he said. "There

are some cynics who say it's not really curing hunger, and it isn't

curing hunger. But it's curing one person's hunger. There's nothing

wrong with that."

To volunteer Information on

the Peanut Butter Plan, including upcoming Bay Area sandwich-making

parties, is available at www.pea nutbutterplan.org.

E-mail Steve stein at datebookletters@....Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/15/DD1Q19MDQO.DTL#ixzz0RzdOf5MS