With start of season, Austin-area high school football teams helping feed hungry

High school football, said Akins head coach Joey Saxe, has always been more than just a game.

Football brings together a school’s community, he said, and it gives his student-athletes opportunities to develop as role models beyond the classroom or the field.

That belief in the powerful and positive impact of high school football made it easy for Saxe and Akins to become part of the Peanut Butter Bowl, a series of season-opening games that also serve as food drives for those in need.

“It’s important to us, because any time you get to do what you love while making a difference in your community, it’s special,” Saxe said. “The Peanut Butter Bowl allows us to be the change in our community and embodies what it means to be an Akins Eagle football player.”

The idea of the Peanut Butter Bowl started six years ago with a season-opening meeting between San Antonio teams Brandeis and Johnson. Steve Teel of Very Bold Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit in San Antonio that has worked to feed people in need for more than two decades, helped organize a food drive with both schools. Fans for the teams either dropped off jars of peanut butter at the participating schools or donated $2 to provide for a jar.

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In 2019, Teel and coaches in the San Antonio area expanded the idea to four games. In 2020, a dozen teams participated in the Peanut Butter Bowl. Last year, that number grew to 20 and spread across the region, including an Austin-area matchup between Bowie and San Marcos. Overall, the 10 games in 2021 brought in 43,000 jars of peanut butter from schools throughout the San Antonio and Austin areas, according to Teel.

This year, said Teel, there are already 35 scheduled Peanut Butter Bowls, ranging from Copperas Cove north of Austin to the Rio Grande Valley. Ten teams from the Austin area will participate, including season-opening meetings between Akins and Hays, Hutto and San Marcos, Georgetown and Copperas Cove, Bowie and Vista Ridge, and Johnson and San Antonio Clark.

Ahead of those season openers, teams will accept jars of peanut butter at school as well as online donations at peanutbutterbowl.com. All jars and proceeds go directly to the area food banks.

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Participating in last year’s Peanut Butter Bowl was one of the most rewarding experiences of the season, said San Marcos coach John Walsh.

"The Peanut Butter Bowl is an awesome service collaboration of incredible programs,” he said. “The Rattlers are honored to participate and give back to the people of San Marcos."

Teel said he’s “overjoyed at the growth” of the Peanut Butter Bowl and its expansion in Austin.

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“This season, to grow from two Austin-area schools to 10 Austin-area teams saying yes to combining football with feeding people has been incredible,” he said. “But to me, it’s also not surprising, because the coaches we meet are flat-out difference-makers that care about community, character and building great leaders. They almost always and immediately say yes.”

The feeling is mutual. Georgetown coach Chuck Griffin, whose team opens the season Aug. 26 at Copperas Cove, says the food drive is “a great opportunity to teach our young men about the value of giving and helping those in our community who need it.”

“One of our four core values is commitment; not just commitment to our team, or even our school, but commitment to our community at large,” he said. “We are proud of where we live and work. When we help those in need, we all win.”

Echoing his peers, Vista Ridge coach Chad Scott said his program’s involvement in the Peanut Butter Bowl makes his team’s season-opening game against Bowie at Gupton Stadium that more meaningful.

“We are excited about this opportunity,” he said. “Texas high school football is an awesome community event already, and this is an opportunity to be a part of something even bigger than the game. This is great for our athletes and a chance to give back to others in our community and help those less fortunate.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin-area high school football teams helping feed hungry