Great tasting, full of essential nutrients and versatile, peanut butter has long been one of the more popular items taking up space in shopping carts around the world.

Whether on a sandwich, cracker or piled on a spoon, 1.5 billion pounds of peanut are eaten every year.

Some families, however, aren’t financially able to keep a supply of peanut butter in their homes and Dave Roberts and Jenn Seay, co-hosts of the Dave and Jenn morning show on WKEE-FM 100.5 in Huntington, W.Va., have spearheaded an effort to make peanut butter more readily available to low-income families.

The WKEE High School Peanut Butter Challenge aids the 2013 Huntington Area Food Bank Peanut Butter Drive.

“There are so many families in need,” Roberts, a graduate of Rock Hill, said when announcing the winner Friday morning. “They don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

Thanks in part to WKEE’s contest many people and families who frequent the Huntington Area Food Bank for sustenance will have a better chance of getting peanut butter for their cupboards. And for Roberts, this year made him extra proud.

Rock Hill won the challenge by collecting and donating 655 jars of peanut butter.

“That is absolutely insane and I could not be more proud,” Roberts said. “(Rock Hill) did a great job last year; they were the ones who really stepped up and made a huge donation last year and that is what gave us the idea to do this competition with the high schools. This year they stepped up even bigger than last year.”

More than 5,500 jars of peanut butter were collected between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2012.

Rock Hill English teacher and national honor society adviser Kim Zornes coordinated the drive at Rock Hill.

“Our honor society organized the drive and all Rock Hill Schools and the community participated,” she said. “We figure the 655 jars we collected would cost about $1,800. We didn’t have any businesses or individuals who donated a lot of jars. We did this one jar at a time.”

That amount of peanut butter, Zornes said, is enough to fill three industrial-size garbage bags and three large Rubbermaid totes. Rock Hill students were in competition with Fairland, Spring Valley, River Valley and Cabell Midland, which is something Seay, a Cabell Midland graduate, says makes Rock Hill’s win even more impressive.

“What’s crazy is that they got 655 jars and only have 389 students and I had 500 people in my graduating class,” she said. “That’s just amazing to think of, goodness gracious you guys are amazing.”

Zornes likes her students’ effort.

“I’m proud of what they’ve done,” she said. “Last year the most inexpensive jar I saw on a shelf was $3. Peanut butter tends to be the first thing people reach for at the food pantry and many times, there isn’t any.”

Other schools, such as Huntington St. Joe and Chesapeake Middle School, donated peanut butter but did not compete in the challenge. Several area businesses also contributed toward the effort.

“You all have no idea how much your contribution will do for this community,” Seay said.

The prize for winning the contest is a dance at Rock Hill hosted by Roberts and Seay. River Valley’s and Cabell Midland’s peanut butter has been picked up and Rock Hill’s will be collected next week.