Eric “Bean” McKay, the Virginia teenager whose enthusiasm for Lidl’s peanut butter triggered a multifront social media movement, is now appearing on the label of a limited edition of the product available at Lidl stores that will benefit autism charities.
McKay eats peanut butter sandwiches three times daily as a means of self-treatment. When his mother Tracy found peanut butter on sale at a Manassass, Va. Lidl for 78 cents a jar she bought six cases—and as the supply dwindled Bean tweeted to Lidl to ask when the item would go on sale next. That exchange turned into a retweet challenge for a “lifetime supply” of peanut butter that went viral.
He then shared a portion of the peanut butter he’d earned with furloughed government workers, handing out free jars at an area store.
Lidl said it would be donating 10 cents of every jar of the creamy peanut butter with McKay’s photo on the label to the Autism Society of America as part of a celebration of Autism Awareness Month.