In A Nut Shell
Doing really good, REALLY GOOD!
We love to give back to our community, because, after all, it's thanks to you lot that we're here!
In order to do our bit, we've always supported really good people doing really good things, handing out jars of peanut butter of all shapes and sizes for every reason you could possibly imagine. And we want to do really good, REALLY GOOD! And one way we can help do that is to tell your story and have more eyeballs seeing the amazing stuff you're doing too.
Let's face it, marketing is expensive. So if we have a voice, why not use it for good?! In 2021 we did a label. A really good label. It was Really Good Peanut Butter For A Really Good Cause. In a lightbulb moment, we realised that not only was this a way for us to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters, but it was also a way for us to help spread the word of the awesome work they're doing for our tamariki.
So each week, one of our PBMs will pic a really good cause for us to get behind. Sometimes there may be even more... and of course, we'll continue working with some really good organisations that we think you should see - you can read more about them further down the page.
Have you got something you think we can help with?
Just fill in the form below to get things cracking!
Tell us your story
We've talked about...
This week let's talk about... Resounding Voices
The whakatauki for our conference is: Hutia te rito o te harakeke, Mai wai te kōmako e kō? If you remove the heart from the flax bush, where will the bellbird sing?
We are excited to welcome five incredible keynote speakers: Behrouz Boochani, Alison Wong, Chris Tse, Shilo Kino and Indira Stewart, as well as offering 50 workshops to inspire our wonderful English teachers from across Aotearoa. We are grateful to Pic's Peanut Butter for providing spot prizes for our event so that we can share our yummy local products with our hardworking teachers from across the country!
COMMUNITY
Our community of peanut butter lovers supports us and we support our community!
We love jumping in and helping to fuel people doing amazing things. We love being in goody bags, lunch shouts, competitions, raffles, and of course supporting those that need a little extra to help get them through. It's a part of who we are and is well entrenched in our company values.
Read on for some of the ongoing relationships we've built with people doing really good things over the years... and to read more about some of the awesome groups and people we've featured through In A Nutshell, just click here.
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Pic has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters Nelson-Tasman since 2010 when he became a mentor for the organisation. Since then, Pic’s has become a cornerstone sponsor for the Nelson-Tasman branch and we take every opportunity we can to support their mahi.
At the last count, the company has donated around $100,000 to BBBS — $50,000 of which was raised through selling jars of peanut butter featuring a special BBBS label. We’re really proud that we’re able to help change so many lives through the excellent work this organisation does.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is an international organisation that makes professionally supervised mentoring matches between adults and young people. They’ve been working in Aotearoa for 25 years and have matched more than 3500 Kiwi kids with more than 1000 volunteer tuakana.
Their first branch in New Zealand opened in Nelson and they now have offices in 12 regions around the country. The training that mentors receive helps them to find ways to ignite potential, provide hope and build resilience in those they’re matched with.
A recent study has shown that 98 percent of the youth who have been matched with mentors through BBBS believe that they are now able to make better life choices as a result of their tuakana.
Chelsea Routhan, Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Tasman Nelson programme director, is hugely grateful for the relationship. ‘Pic has such a big heart and he has so much atawhai and manaakitanga. As well as being very generous, he’s an amazing role model for the organisation.
‘The philanthropic contribution he makes to young people in our community is vital. These young people have faced adversity of some description so having a mentor helps build their confidence and enhances their resilience.
By contributing to us, Pic’s allow us to match more young people with mentors . . . one of the reasons we’re able to employ more staff, support more matches and train more of our incredible volunteers is because of the support we get from people like Pic.’
The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary
Another organisation we’ve supported for almost as long as Pic’s has been around is our local Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. This incredible eco-sanctuary is right on Nelson’s doorstep and behind its 700 hectares of predator-proof fencing, you’ll find an array of native wildlife.
We’ve been keen supporters of the sanctuary since 2008 and have donated more than $40,000 to projects there. Much of this has been funded through our jar return scheme, which sees us donate monthly to the sanctuary for every jar that’s brought back to us at Nelson’s Saturday market or Peanut Butter World.
Located only 10 minutes from Nelson Central, the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary is a haven for native flora and fauna right on the city’s doorstep. With a 14.4-kilometer-long pest-proof fence encompassing 690 hectares of native bush, it is the largest fenced sanctuary in the South Island.
Since the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary Trust was formed in 2004, years of labour, intense fundraising, and the unwavering support of a dedicated community have all allowed the Sanctuary to pursue its goal of restoring a significant natural area — where biodiversity doesn’t just survive but also thrives. As a result, in 2021 the Sanctuary was able to enter an exciting new phase: the re-introduction of native species.
In April 2021, the translocation and reintroduction of 40 tīeke (South Island saddleback) from Motuara Island in Queen Charlotte Sound took place, signaling the end of a more than 120-year absence from the region for the birds.
It is hoped that the tīeke will successfully breed and help to boost numbers on the mainland for this critically endangered species. Kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet) were next — between 2021 and 2022, 80 birds in total were translocated in stages from the Isaacs Conservation Wildlife Trust in Christchurch.
These birds are a taonga for Ngāi Tahu and Te Tau Ihu iwi. With just 360 left in the wild, the species is the rarest mainland forest bird in Aotearoa. The presence of mature beech forest at the Sanctuary makes it an ideal site for the birds to nest and feed, and constant vigilance and ongoing monitoring ensure that our native endangered species are given the best chance possible to flourish.
Sanctuary chief executive, Ru Collin, expressed the team’s gratitude for Pic’s continued generosity, then let us in one of the secrets of how the sanctuary remains predator-free: ‘Pic’s Peanut Butter is the spread of choice on our monitoring and pest-detection devices as it’s not just irresistible to humans, but also to other critters too!’
Kai with love, Kiwi Harvest, Oz Harvest, and UK harvest
Pic’s also supports local Nelson organisation Kai with Love, as well as KiwiHarvest, OzHarvest, and UKHarvest, by donating our not-perfect-but-still really-good product to them for redistribution. This not only reduces the negative impact of food waste — it also creates lasting positive social change by nourishing people in need.
In 2020 we donated $152,084, about 7.5 percent of our profits, as well as 8470 jars of peanut butter. Whether it’s to a school needing help to feed their tamariki every morning, a knitting club holding a raffle, or a big organisation doing really good things, we love to give for good.
Kai with love
Kai with Love is an incredible grassroots organisation that is helping to solve the issue of food waste by providing a food share service to anyone that needs it — no questions asked.
The process of connecting with those in need of food boxes is done through Facebook and text messaging. Supported by the Richmond Community Church, the organisation has around 100 volunteers and it works with lots of local businesses to keep food that is still good but — for a variety of reasons — might not be saleable from going in the bin.
At Pic’s, if we have excess stock, jars with incorrect labels that can’t be removed or peanuts that have been over-roasted but are still perfectly good to eat, we’ll contact the team at Kai with Love to see if they would like to rehome them for us. They pick up what they can use and share it with their community.
We’ve also been able to supply them with empty clean jars for bottling the preserves they make when they’re given large amounts of fruit or vegetables, and plenty of peanut butter when they were pulling together donations for the Westport community following the disastrous floods there in 2021.
The Kai with Love team also used the Food Factory kitchen (Pic's side gig READ MORE about it here) when they were given a big lot of fresh cream, which they turned into yummy fresh butter!
Department of Conservation, Predator Free groups, and local trappers
Sometimes we have peanut butter and peanut leftovers that don’t meet the high standards needed for people to eat them. These don’t go to waste, though. They get used in a very important way to help maintain Aotearoa’s unique natural environment.
It turns out that rats and possums love peanut butter just about as much as we do — so when we have waste product available, we’re more than happy to give it to people who are dedicated to removing mammalian predators from our shores.
At the time of writing, we’re supplying product to 127 trappers or trapping groups. They include Predator Free Awhitu, Predator Free Matamata, Predator Free Sumner, and Department of Conservation trappers in Auckland,
Hokitika, Nelson, Picton, and Stewart Island.
Whenua Iti
Whenua Iti is an awesome organisation that provides educational programmes for tamariki throughout Te Tau Ihu. They take students out of the classroom for a hands-on experience that challenges them and requires the use of practical problem-solving skills to extend their learning.
By taking on these challenges, the students gain a connection to the natural environment, learn about themselves and others and are inspired to make positive changes in their lives.
They also have a lot of fun! The positive impact that Whenua Iti’s programmes has on those who participate in them then spreads into their communities. Through their nature connection programmes, Whenua Iti has connected 1000 tamariki a year with outdoor experiences.
Coastguard Nelson
Coastguard is a charity that is all about saving lives at sea. Around the country, there are almost 2000 Coastguard volunteers who put in almost 300,000 hours of their own time every year to ensure that New Zealanders are safe when they’re out on the water.
As well as providing education and boating safety advice, Coastguard is also Aotearoa’s primary maritime search and rescue service.
The team at Coastguard Nelson covers a huge area — about 7400 square kilometres —that stretches from the very top of Farewell Spit all the way to the northern point of D’Urville Island.
It’s the single biggest stretch of water that anyone Coastguard unit covers in this country. In 2021, our local Coastguard’s volunteers put in 6220 hours’ work, answered 56 calls for help and brought 105 people home safely.
Given Pic’s lifelong love of the sea and sailing, he’s really happy to support our local Coastguard team and help them out in whatever ways he can — such as raising funds for a new rescue boat, Hohapata Sealord Rescue.
Nelson Tasman Hospice
Around the corner from Peanut Butter World on Suffolk Road is the Nelson Tasman Hospice, an incredible place run by amazing people. There, the team provides specialist care services for people who have life-limiting illnesses, their families and their carers.
These palliative care services are provided free of charge to anyone who needs them and are available to anyone. To carry out this important work, the organisation needs to fundraise $2.5 million each year, and Pic has regularly donated the fees he’s earned for speaking engagements to this cause.
When the organisation set about raising $14 million to fund a purpose-built hospice building for the people of Nelson and Tasman, Pic was one of those involved in the fundraising effort . . . this time in a very special way.
In May 2018 he joined seven other well-known Nelsonians in training to compete in Dancing for a Cause to raise funds for the new facility. Along with his dance partner, Brooke Silke-Atkins, Pic had eight weeks to perfect his cha-cha-cha.
On the night, he and Brooke wowed the sold out crowd with their slick moves but the win went to local surgeon Ros Pochin. The real winners, though, were the team at the hospice because the event raised a brilliant $90,000 to go towards their new home.
The new facility, which includes a 10-bed specialised palliative care inpatient unit, opened in April 2019.
