CSUSB Food Pantry Wins National Competition in Promoting Peanuts as a Healthy Snack

Cal State San Bernardino has claimed a national championship. It wasn’t for academics, sports or for any of the many other outstanding programs on campus, but for kindness and a scrappy determination to succeed. Under the #peanutpower Snack Attack Competition from the National Peanut Board, The CSUSB DEN Food Pantry bested 24 other universities with campus food pantries in sending positive messages through social media about peanuts as a healthy snack, said Dianne Podolske, director of the university’s Office of Community Engagement. For its efforts The DEN will receive a check for $2,500, she said. The university in second place will receive $1,000 with $500 set aside for third place. Each participating campus food pantry will also receive 1,000 units of peanut butter and 22 pounds of roasted peanuts, Podolske said. “We knew we were up against larger universities, like Penn State and Fresno State … and also some smaller, but well-established campus food pantries with long standing campus and community partnerships,” Podolske said. “Our campus food pantry isn’t even a year old, and our campus does its best just to keep some food on the shelves for our students who need help. I privately hoped we would get enough participation to land in the middle of the list – just enough not to be embarrassing.” But Podolske said she underestimated the spirit of the entire campus in helping The DEN, even if it was for peanuts. “I was wrong. So wrong,” she said. “I lost track of the number of times that students and the campus community told us, ‘We’ve got this!’ Students didn’t even want to hear about the second and third place prizes, as they were focused on winning for The DEN,” Podolske said. “People in every division on campus were willing to have their picture taken with signs about peanuts.” Her staff made YouTube videos, wore costumes, had CSUSB mascot Cody Coyote endorse the effort. Associated Students, Inc., the Program Board and other student organizations volunteered to tweet and post social media messages about the competition. They also featured images of CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales, CSU Chancellor Timothy White and CSUSB Student Affairs Vice President Brian Haynes to help the effort. But it also went beyond the CSUSB campus. Students asked relatives and friends to tweet about peanuts, UCLA joined in to support the Coyote cause, and even one of our competitors retweeted for the CSUSB effort. “In fact, on the last day of the competition, CSUSB’s PeanutPower hashtag was trending on Instagram!” Podolske said. There were hundreds and hundreds of posts and photos and likes and retweets … each one a kindness from the campus community and our friends to CSUSB students in need. Each post represented CSUSB’s drive to work harder and longer to beat the odds.” Podolske praised the OCE staff and student staff, including Joselyn Yap, Rosemary Zometa, Giacomo Thillet and Bayu Setyawan, ASI’s Shannon Stratton, the Program Board and campus photographers Robert Whitehead and Corrine McCurdy, along with CSUSB social media interns, all of the Greek and student organizations who helped, CSUSB students, staff, faculty, administrators and campus friends who made this victory possible. “You made a difference! #PeanutPower #CSUSB,” Podolske said.