By Hunter Hine

Club leaders circled the room, spraying participants’ hands with sanitizer and handing out pink rubber gloves. Everyone took two slices of bread and passed peanut butter and jelly jars back and forth. By the end of the Monday night gathering, PB & Justice prepared 40 sandwiches for a local homeless shelter.

A 2019 survey by the University of Maryland found that about 1 in 5 of the college’s students faced food insecurity. In the state of Maryland, 1 out of 9 people faced food insecurity, according to a Feeding America study from 2019. 

Club founder Anabel Kearley said she started planning PB & Justice in February 2019, but the club never met in person until Monday, the first time they made food for the homeless.

The first club meeting was online in October 2020, Kearley said. Before, PB & Justice focused only on education, with discussions of documentaries about social justice and food insecurity, said Kearley, who is also the club’s director.  

“We think of ourselves as a book club but for documentaries, and we’re really just trying to facilitate a space to have open discussions and learn about social justice issues while making small scale social change,” said Kearley, a senior psychology major.

The ability to meet in person meant PB & Justice could support bagged lunch programs at homeless shelters. Kearley said the 40 sandwiches made on Monday were donated to So Others Might Eat, an organization with a cafeteria for the homeless in Washington.

Sophomore Leo Rubinson, a philosophy, politics, and economics student, said he hoped to make friends at the meeting, help people in need and listen to different perspectives about food insecurity.

“It’s really exciting we got a big turnout, and hopefully people stick around and stay involved,” he said.

After the second round of making sandwiches, the leaders sat at the head of the room to open a discussion about the documentary, “A Place at the Table.” Volunteers continued to slather peanut butter and jelly on slices and slap them together but slowed down the pace as supplies ran thin. What began as a classroom-style, raised-hand discussion became an open conversation for all to jump in at any time after Kearley opened the floor to the attendees.

Senior elementary education student Stella Rubinson, the club’s director of communications and outreach, wrote in an email that the club gives her hope for the future. 

“Many of the documentaries we watch have a call to action, and many of our members are inspired and want to act on the issues from the documentaries. Additionally, it feels nice to make sandwiches and donate to a local organization. This is a way to start helping the local community and have a small solution to food insecurity,” she said.

Although TerpLink lists 20 members, the club usually drew only six or seven people to its online meetings, Kearley said. The meeting on Monday drew 16 attendees in addition to the four student leaders. 

PB & Justice does not currently receive any outside funding, said club Treasurer Emily Blume, a senior criminal justice and psychology student. Leaders purchased the food out of pocket, Blume said, and cannot apply for funding until their TerpLink page reaches 25 members.

The club is not currently affiliated with other community groups, but leaders hope to gather a team to volunteer at the Campus Pantry, Kearley said. The pantry is a UMD program focused on addressing food insecurity on campus for students, faculty and staff, according to its website.

Making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is both financially reasonable for the club and easy to have a conversation over, Kearley said. 

Senior Amanda Ernst, an early childhood education student, said the club illuminated the seriousness of food insecurity in the U.S.

“I think that it’s very common to think, ‘Oh yeah, we’re in America, everybody has food, everybody has access to food.’ But that’s not a reality, and this club is shining light on that and allowing it to be a conversation with people who have food and to give more options to other people,” Ernst said. 

Featured photo: Club leaders face the room and begin a discussion about the documentary, “A Place at the Table,” after two rounds of making sandwiches. The documentary tells the story of three people facing food insecurity in the U.S. Photo by Hunter Hine.