Bonney Lake Councilwoman Laurie Carter laid down the gauntlet last month and the city council and staff responded.

Citing increasing needs and dwindling supplies at the food bank, Carter challenged the city to collect more jars of peanut butter than she could, promising to match their donation jar-for-jar.

At the beginning of the Dec. 7 council workshop, Mayor Neil Johnson announced the results: The staff had collected 140 jars of peanut butter, approximately 150 pounds of the high-protein food.

With that, the back doors of the council chambers swung open and in rolled the “wagon train of peanut butter,” as Johnson called it, a large plastic wagon piled high with peanut butter of every brand and consistency.

Having collected 100 jars of her own, Carter, smiling, presented event coordinator David Wells with the “golden squirrel” award for collecting more nuts than she did.

When Carter, who said she had a few anonymous donors to help her purchase the matching jars, added her donation to that of the city staff, the total was more than 370 pounds.

Carter also promised to purchase the additional 40 jars needed to match city totals.

Bonney Lake Food Bank Executive Director Stew Bowen termed the donation “pretty awesome,” calling the spread a staple of his diet.

Bowen also said for many people, peanut butter is a comfort food, providing a sense of security for many families.

“I’ve had people tell me that if they have a bag of frozen chicken in the freezer they feel like they have nothing to eat, but if they have a jar of peanut butter in the cupboard they feel like they have something to eat,” he said. “This means that many families are going to have a sense of security because of that jar of peanut butter.”

Requests at the food bank are up an estimated 30 percent this year from 2009.

The Bonney Lake Food Bank is at 18409 Sumner-Buckley Hwy. E. For more information or to make a donation, call 253-863-4043.