TEDDIE peanut butter is named after the Teddy Bear. That was the little bear Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot in 1902. Roosevelt was the descendant of the families Van Dijck from Utrecht, Van Noortstrant from Friesland, Van Schaik from Houten, Schuyler from Amsterdam, Bogaert from Leerdam, Roelofs and Olfertsen from Heerenveen, Kunst from Alkmaar, and Van Rosenvelt from Tholen. And shooting a tiny bear was beneath him.
Four years back in time: peanut butter was, after toilet paper and liquid soap, the first thing people squirreled in mid-March 2020 after Covid broke out. Soon there was almost nowhere people could buy peanut butter. Teddie’s manufacturer in Massachusetts asked its staff if they were willing to work odd hours. Everyone said yes.
The factory has been around since the deep depression days of nearly a century ago, when they switched from candy to peanut butter to provide people with an affordable source of protein. During Covid, they expanded production threefold to fill store shelves again as quickly as possible. It worked. Thanks in part to Teddie, plenty of peanut butter was soon available again almost everywhere.
The extra profits went to the staff, who all received bonuses. And for the record, behind Roosevelt’s back someone shot and killed that little bear after all. It had attacked a hunting dog, and the hunter took revenge. But the Van Wijhe family who emigrated to America from Overijssel did not know that. They had a toy factory and became very wealthy manufacturing and selling Teddy’s Bear, the teddy bear, still popular worldwide more than a century later.
