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A Simple Shift Delivers Big Impact

December 3, 2024
SKIPPY Peanut Butter Spread item in the production facility

Innovation in peanut butter production for the SKIPPY® brand helped Hormel Foods avoid product waste, improve plant operations and donate more than 250,000 pounds of peanut butter to feed children in El Salvador.

Sometimes big changes require only fresh eyes and innovative thinking. In 2019, the Skippy Foods team in Little Rock, Arkansas, took a closer look at the way the plant changed production from one peanut butter variety to another. They saw potential improvement for this changeover process, and drawing from the formation of other Hormel Foods partnerships with nonprofits over the years, came up with a simple but innovative idea.

“Our team started thinking outside the box,” said Skippy Foods Engineer Robert Moellers. “This is a good product. Can this be put to a better use?”

What the team observed was the same robust process that Skippy Foods has used to make peanut butter since it opened in 1977. Raw peanuts are roasted, the skins removed, sorted, milled into a paste and blended with ingredients. The final milling step gives the peanut butter its iconic creamy texture. The peanut butter is cooled, filled into jars, and sealed with tamper-evident liners. Once it’s labeled and packaged in shrink-wrap, the jars of peanut butter are ready to be shipped from the warehouse to retailers across the country.

Brand innovations led to the development of several additional SKIPPY® peanut butter varieties. The two most common varieties, natural and regular, are identical except for one ingredient. The natural and regular recipes are processed on the same machines. A “changeover” occurs between the production of the two recipes. “The only way to get the old recipe out of the filler is to put it in a jar,” Moellers said. These are the same jars that are used for the products sold in retail.

Jars of Peanut Butter Spread Product

The changeover process produces up to 500 jars of product in a day— some jars filled with creamy, some jars with chunky, and some jars that are a combination of the two. Even though it’s perfectly good peanut butter, the peanut butter spread product can’t be sold at retail because the team assures recipes stay intact with no deviations. The jar labels contain all the ingredients and nutritional facts for the peanut butter spread product.

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A Simple Innovation Produces Big Results

The SKIPPY® team had the idea to donate the peanut butter spread. Their innovative thinking reflects the core values of Hormel Foods, inspired by the resourcefulness of company founder George Hormel, who believed in creating something valuable out of every opportunity and avoiding waste. The team’s simple yet impactful solution led to the idea of donating the peanut butter spread mixture to Convoy of Hope, a longtime partner of Hormel Foods, aimed at assisting communities in El Salvador. Convoy of Hope is a humanitarian and disaster relief nonprofit organization based in Springfield, Missouri, dedicated to providing food and support to communities in need in the U.S. and around the globe. This project continues to play a significant role in combating food insecurity. In response to the chronic malnutrition affecting 14% of children under the age of five in El Salvador, Convoy of Hope has been able to distribute SKIPPY® peanut butter to nearly 30,000 children there, and the impact continues to grow.

“We are so thankful for this partnership with the SKIPPY® brand team,” said Melanie Morgan, Convoy of Hope’s nutritionist. “Peanut butter is a good source of protein and calories, and it contains several important nutrients like magnesium and iron. It is also shelf-stable, which is exactly what we need. This product is the perfect addition to our feeding programs in El Salvador and has helped us meet the protein needs for the children we serve.”

According to Morgan, the children love peanut butter so much that they use it not only in sandwiches but even in horchata, a popular drink in El Salvador.

New Process, Same Peanut Butter, Big Donation

Now, during a changeover, the SKIPPY® Brand peanut butter process looks just a little different — the same robust process enhanced. Now, we take the peanut butter spread product jars to our warehouse and put a label on them for Convoy of Hope.”

Since partnering with Convoy of Hope in 2019, Hormel Foods has donated over 250,000 pounds of SKIPPY® peanut butter spread, enough for over 4 million sandwiches1. “This was a real win for the [production] plant,” Moellers said. “Every jar that we can donate saves the product and packaging material. That’s the beauty of this. Everybody knows it’s a good product. Our fans don’t want to buy a jar that’s labeled creamy and get a jar that may have several peanut butter chunks. We are glad we can donate this product to communities in need and help tackle food insecurity.”

1Using the National Peanut Board’s calculation of 1 oz. of peanut butter = 1 peanut butter sandwich

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