If you opened a package from Penzeys Spices over the past few days and found a box with 27 sachets of a seasoning blend called “Resist! Keep America Alive” that you didn’t remember ordering, you’re not alone: In an ad that ran on Facebook and Instagram, the Wisconsin company says it’s halfway through a plan to send 37,038 of these boxes to its customers in the Washington, DC, area free of charge.
Penzeys hasn’t yet replied to an interview request, but its ad, signed by company owner Bill Penzey, says the idea is to “simply get them into people’s hands and let them figure out what best to do with them from there.” It continues:
With the turmoil they are about to face, now more than ever all of us reaching out and appreciating government workers is unbelievably important. Lots of federal workers in DC, but lots of their family and friends and neighbors, too. We hope a good chunk of these boxes arrive right in those homes.
Penzeys, a company loved for decades by home cooks, has grown increasingly outspoken about its owner’s anti-MAGA views over the last eight years. A mini-tempest bloomed around the company last fall after Kamala Harris made a stop at one of its retail stores. If you’re feeling left out and want your own box of Resist!, which the company says is a good complement for burgers, wings, and guacamole, you can order one online. As to what people might do with so many small packages of the spice? Penzey writes that “From a photo sent my way I can say the apartment building’s laundry room where everyone also shares books is a great spot.”