Eat Peanut Butter, Save Koalas

If you like peanut butter, supporting small businesses, and saving koalas, then you might be interested in a little company called Nerdy Nuts, which bills itself as the "Ben & Jerry's of peanut butter." A female-owned operation based out of Rapid City, South Dakota, Nerdy Nuts offers small-batch peanut butter in tasty (and topical!) flavors like Bourbon "Peach Mint". Its newest flavor is inspired by Lamington cakes, which are are an icon of Australian cuisine. The peanut butter contains swirls of chocolate, flecks of sweetened coconut, and, as befitting the times we're in, love. Lots and lots of tasty, chocolate-y love.

Lamington Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter is available for purchase on the Nerdy Nuts website, and 100% of the proceeds will be sent to WIRES Wildlife Emergency Fund. According to its website, WIRES has 28 branches across the Australian continent and receives more than 95,000 calls each year requesting rescue services for millions of vulnerable animals, help which is provided by a network of volunteer veterinarians and caring community members. The recent wildfires that have decimated the country, and, according to experts, killed over 1 billion animals, has overwhelmed the nonprofit agency's limited resources, which has put its fundraising department in crisis mode.

Though Nerdy Nuts is an extremely small business, it's hoping to sell enough peanut butter to be able to donate $10,000 to help WIRES continue rescuing koalas, kangaroos, flying foxes, wombats, and the thousands of other cute (and not so cute) creatures that have had their habitat destroyed. While I may not always be proud of my ability to crush an entire jar of peanut butter while watching the news in a state of total and utter despair, this one might actually fill me with soul-soothing saturated fats and hope. A disaster of this magnitude is devastating beyond words, but it's nice to know there exists a peanut butter that might, in some small way, help restore my ever waning faith in humanity.