Sixteen thousand dollars in cash ain’t peanuts, but that is how much the little legume raised for low-income children who could not afford their school lunches in the mountains of North Georgia.
Michael Meaders sells them, five bucks a bag, boiled to briny, slick perfection, at Papa Mike’s Peanut and Produce Stand in the town of Cleveland. “I call them Southern caviar,” he says. In a gesture of DIY, grassroots philanthropy that he calls simply the “kids’ thing,” he collects the proceeds in a kitty and then hands the funds over to the local school district.
“The need is so great that it just breaks your heart,” says Meaders, who speaks in an Appalachian twang thickened by a plug of tobacco.
This initiative started in 2017, when he and a fishing buddy were out rambling around and talking about needs in their rural community. On a whim, they stopped at Jack P. Nix elementary school and asked its principal if any students were struggling to pay for their meals. Turns out, many were. An estimated 20 percent of children suffer from food insecurity in the region. Meaders donated $50 that day but promised to come back with more, and he has made good on his word, becoming a familiar figure who regularly strolls into schools with a wad of cash in a rubber band.
“We are so blessed to live in a community where people care about one another,” says Abby Rowland, nutrition director of the White County school system. “Mike has a heart for children, and we are honored to have him as a community partner and a friend.”
Meaders, whose family settled in White County more than two hundred years ago, is what they mean when they say “salt of the earth.” He addresses every woman of any vintage as “young lady,” and every man gets greeted as “captain.” A beard away from looking like Santa Claus, he wears suspenders that strain against a barrel chest holding a heart sized to scale. “No kid is going to go hungry around me—that ain’t gonna happen,” he says, and honest tears spring to his eyes. In fact, every child who visits his stand gets a free apple. “They may not have anything to snack on at home—you never know about people.”
Papa Mike’s, which sells fresh produce as well as peanuts, is a popular landmark with both locals and tourists passing by on the main artery to the mountains. “I love to introduce Yankees to boiled peanuts,” Meaders says. “They either love ’em or spit ’em out. I warn them that they will start foaming at the mouth craving them later…Some days we’re covered up with people. Yesterday alone we raised $257 for the kids. The rest of the time, we just sit around here telling stories and talking about fishing.”
And doing some good, one peanut at a time.
