History

It all started in January of 1971 when Bruce Cottington, co-owner of Kohlhoff's Super Valu in Litchfield, Minnesota, and Lloyd Kuehl, produce manager, began talking about how often they ate peanut butter and drank milk on a radio talk show Bruce hosted every weekday on the local radio station, KLFD. A new store had recently opened and was giving them some stiff competition. Looking for a good promotion to stimulate sales, they hit on proclaiming Litchfield the peanut butter capital of the world. Bruce and the staff of Super Valu wondered if any of their listeners liked peanut butter as well as they did. They said if they did, they'd get a special price on peanut butter when they came into the store. The whole town came in!

As the idea gained momentum, Cottington began writing letters to anyone who might be receptive... President Nixon, Senator Humphrey, Governor Wendell Anderson, Ann Landers and Governor George Wallace. People went along with the idea, with Anderson proclaiming February 8-15 as Peanut Butter Days. Soon "Master Peanut Butter Eater" certificates were circulating and people from all over the U.S. began writing in for them. Litchfield went peanut butter crazy.

Since peanut butter and milk are a natural together, Master Milk Drinker certificates soon began circulating along with the Master Peanut Butter Eater certificates. The Master Milk Drinker certificates were signed by Harmon Killebrew and were color blind--having both a White Milk and a Chocolate Milk Director of Affairs.

The Peanut Butter and Milk Festival was started to do four things--promote rural America; promote good food; promote agriculture, particularly the dairy industry; and to involve young people in these promotions. Since Bruce is a lifetime FFA member, it seemed a natural step to involve the FFA groups in the program. He called Auburn University to ask about an FFA chapter in Alabama. He was told that Paul Dean at Hartford, Alabama, had the best FFA chapter in Alabama. Thus the Hartford-Litchfield connection.

Later that year Bruce determined that he needed a special vehicle for his travels to Alabama. Al Fenton contacted the Chevrolet company and a special order was sent to Detroit for a Peanut Butter and Milk car. The bottom of the car was to be the color of peanut butter and the top was to be white for milk. The Detroit factory had to stop production to paint this special car which was used on many a trip to Alabama and was even featured in the 1971 National Peanut Festival Parade.

In October of that year, Bruce and his family set out for Alabama, stopping along the way to make presentations to several people. Beginning in St. Paul, a presentation was given to Governor Wendell Anderson. In Des Moines they presented Super Valu peanut butter and Land O'Lakes dairy products to Governor Robert Ray, a former Drake University classmate of Bruce's. Similar stops and presentations were made to Governor Winfield Dunn of Tennessee, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and Lt. Governor William Morris of Missouri.

Governor George Wallace signed a legislative resolution stating that anybody in Meeker County was a resident of Alabama. Meeker County residents couldn't vote in Alabama, but they were more than welcome to pay taxes!

Once in Alabama, the Cottingtons visited the Dothan and Hartford areas and participated in the National Peanut Festival. Bruce visited with Paul Dean, FFA advisor at Hartford, and the idea of a north-south FFA and FHA exchange program was finalized.

In 2001 the PBM sister cities of Litchfield, Minnesota and Hartford, Alabama celebrated the 30th Anniversary of what has become an annual exchange of people, good will and peanut butter and milk. Natives of the peanut country "come-a-visitin" north each February to the Peanut Butter and Milk Festival in Litchfield, and people from dairy country (Meeker County, Minnesota) travel south each October/November to the National Peanut Festival in Dothan and Hartford, Alabama.