Songwriter donates 100 cases of peanut butter to Oakland schools

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland is going to need a lot of jelly.

Country-western songwriter Sorrells Pickard has donated 100 cases of peanut butter - enough for about 19,200 sandwiches - to the city and its schools.

Pickard, a singer who has written songs for artists including Ringo Starr and Slim Whitman, grew up on a Florida peanut farm and recently released his own gourmet peanut butter.

Pickard chose Oakland because of its prominence in peanut butter lore. Legend has it that stabilized peanut butter - which doesn't separate - first appeared in stores in Oakland in the 1920s.

That came as a surprise to Oakland officials.

''In the peanut butter world, we're famous - I don't think anyone knew this,'' said Vice Mayor Henry Chang Jr., who is sponsoring a city resolution to accept the gift and thank Pickard on May 16.

Usana Pulliam, interim director of the city's children and family services program, said the peanut butter was the largest food donation Oakland has ever received.

It will be greatly appreciated, Pulliam predicts.

''I never met a child who didn't like peanut butter,'' she said.