By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
On Monday morning after their workout, the Copperas Cove Bulldawgs were at the Athletic Annex at the high school, lugging lots of peanut butter that came in during the month of August for the 11th annual Peanut Butter Bowl.
The month-long campaign started Aug. 1 and ran through Aug. 30, when students and community members alike rounded up as much peanut butter as they could. Businesses, churches, schools, and families collected jars, and the Copperas Cove H-E-B Plus! accepted donations from customers and even had pallets of peanut butter purchased by customers for the cause.
Steve Teel with the Peanut Butter Bowl came in from San Antonio to watch the process.
He jokingly called Monday “Weigh-bor Day” instead of Labor Day.
He confirmed that there were still a few more donations that had not yet been picked up, such as from the district administration building and some school board members.
On Sept. 3, Copperas Cove was in 6th place for online donations, with 1,612 jars of peanut butter.
“However,” Teel said on Monday morning, “Copperas Cove always collects more actual jars of peanut butter than it receives in monetary donations.”
Donald Buckram Jr. is Head Track Coach and also a CCHS alum who leads the way each year for the effort.
On Monday, he was all smiles as volunteers, including his wife and son Trenton, helped tabulate the final totals.
As of Monday, a total of 16,305 pounds of peanut butter had been collected in Copperas Cove.
“Hopefully, it will be back-to-back this year for us,” Buckram said on Monday, “This is reassuring because every year we do it, I’m wondering if the participation is going to be like last year, and then every year we’re’ progressing more. I was telling (Teel) because we didn’t push as hard as we did last year, this year.”
Buckram said the official announcement will take place on Sept. 29 in San Antonio. This year, more than 120 high schools participated in the Peanut Butter Bowl.
Copperas Cove won the Peanut Butter Bowl in 2023 and 2025.
Donations of peanut butter stay in the local community and are distributed to local food banks, such as Baptist Benevolence and My Brother’s House food pantries in Copperas Cove.
On Monday, Doris McCreary with the Baptist Benevolence was on site at the athletic annex and watched at the large plastic trash cans full of jarred peanut butter were loaded onto trailers.
Their destination was across town at First Baptist Church, where McCreary administrates the program.
“This is beyond words,” McCreary said as the players hoisted the trash cans after weighing them. “We just ran out of peanut butter recently.”
Each trash can weighs approximately 200 pounds, give or take a few pounds, after being filled with jars of peanut butter.
In 2025, Copperas Cove collected a total of 12,240 jars of peanut butter, outpacing second place La Vega by more than 7,000 jars, who collected 4,836 jars of peanut butter.
In 2024, Copperas Cove collected a total of 10,674 jars of peanut butter, placing second.
The first Peanut Butter Bowl was held between two San Antonio high schools in 2016 and has spread throughout the years to include high schools in Central and South Texas.
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