PB & J for Good Atlanta

 

Looking for a perfect dinner date spot in Atlanta this weekend? Well I have great restaurants to suggest that not only serve delicious food, but are also participating in a great cause.

PB&J for Good, a 10-day fundraiser benefitting Stop SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition) has been going on since October 16 throughout Atlanta. Launching in conjunction with World Hunger Day, the fundraiser will continue through Saturday, October 25. PB&J for Good has brought together more than 50 local restaurants, and many of the city’s most acclaimed chefs, each of whom is transforming the quintessential childhood favorite, peanut butter and jelly, into a culinary masterpiece.

Stop SAM co-founder Mike Levison was particularly moved by a 2009 60 Minutes segment highlighting the use of a newly-created fortified peanut butter formulation in treating Severe Acute Malnutrition. “I couldn’t believe such a simple, effective treatment was available for such a dire condition,” Levison says. “Since watching the segment, it has been my passion to make treatment available to starving children throughout the world.”

Following a successful debut in Orange County, California in 2013, Levison along with his co-founder Luke Mysse are excited to expand PB&J for Good in Levison’s hometown market of Atlanta.

A percentage of the featured dishes’ sales will be donated to Stop SAM at the event’s conclusion. Stop SAM will in turn use 100 percent of these funds to purchase Mother Administered Nutritive Aid (MANA) packets, a form Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) produced in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Essentially fortified peanut butter, the packets contain a mixture of peanut paste and dry whole milk. Administered three times daily for six to seven weeks, MANA is 98 percent effective at returning suffering children to a healthy and sustainable weight.

The severest stage of malnutrition, SAM effects 20 million children worldwide, with a projected one in four children suffering at any given time. While a highly effective, low-cost, easily administered treatment is available via RUTF, only 10 to 15 percent of the world’s needs are currently being met.

More information on the fundraiser is available on PB&J for Good’s website, www.pbjforgood.com/atlanta, and on Facebook.

Confirmed participants include 4^th & Swift, Alon’s Bakery, Arena Tavern, Aria, Article 14, Atkin’s Park Restaurant & Bar, Babs Midtown, Bantam + Biddy, Barrel House, BLT Steak, Bocado, Breadwinner, Café Jonah, Canoe, Cibo Beve, Double Zero, F&B Atlanta, Farm Burger, G’s Midtown, Gunshow, Juicy Jenny, King of Pops, Leon’s Full Service, Lobby Bar and Bistro, Local Three, MAX’s Wine Dive, Meehan’s Public House, MetroFresh, Minis by Maria, Murphy’s Restaurant, Napoletena, No Mas! Cantina, ONE Midtown Kitchen, Park 75 Restaurant, Ratio Bake Shop, Room at Twelve, Rosebud, Serpas True Food, Sheraton Atlanta, Slope’s, Smokebelly, Souper Jenny, Spice to Table, Sugo, Tabla, TAP, Taqueria del Sol, The Bishop, The Iberian Pig, The Neighborhood Café, The Shed, The Spence, Wahoo! Grill and Woodfire Grill.

20 million children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition right now.

Malnutrition and hunger can make a child weaker and more susceptible to illness, stunt physical and mental development- and eventually kill.

SAM causes over 2 million deaths each year.

But as massive a problem as this is, the answer is incredibly simple- and its easy to be part of the solution.

About Stop SAM

Stop SAM (severe acute malnutrition) was started in April 2013 by founders Mike Levison and Luke Mysse who heard the story of SAM and decided they were going to do something about it. With only 10 to 15 percent of the global need being met by international relief organizations, Levison and Mysse decided that there needed to be an organization dedicated to closing that gap. In five years, Stop SAM hopes to save one million children through fundraising and distribution of Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) packets produced by MANA Nutrition. With $50, Stop SAM is able to provide a child suffering from SAM with a six-week treatment that can save his or her life. For more information, please visit www.stopsam.org.