Adleigh Mayes with the Planters Nutmobile during Peanut Prep.
For Adleigh Mayes, peanuts aren’t just a snack, they’re part of who she is. Growing up in Dothan, Alabama, the self-proclaimed Peanut Capital of the World, she was surrounded by fields of peanuts, fall festivals and a community that celebrated the crop every fall. Her father, Jeremy Mayes, works in the peanut industry, and through him, Mayes learned the value of agriculture and hard work early on. Those lessons, which may have seemed mundane, would later drive her toward a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that quite literally rolled her across the country in a huge legume.
After graduating from Freed-Hardeman University with a degree in public relations, the Houston County native found herself in the same uncertain transition many college seniors face: life after commencement. She loved her years as a collegiate volleyball player and was soaking up her final semester, not yet ready to dive into job searching.
Then, in November 2024, a message popped into her family group chat—a link from her dad that would change everything. It was an application for the Planters Peanutter Program, a year-long adventure where a team of recent graduates drives the 26-foot, peanut-shaped Nutmobile across America, spreading smiles and the story of peanuts.
“At first, I thought it had to be a joke,” Mayes says with a laugh. “I mean, it was a giant peanut on wheels. But once I actually read about the program, I thought, wait, this actually sounds incredible.”
One part of the application required a 60-second video explaining why she’d make a great Peanutter. She leaned into her roots, literally. Filming around Dothan, she posed with the city’s iconic peanut statues and even included shots inside the shelling plant her dad works at.
“I started the video with, ‘My name is Adleigh Mayes, and I guess you could say peanuts are in my roots,'” she says. Her humor, creativity, and authenticity helped her stand out among nearly 900 applicants.
Months of interviews, written submissions, and group assignments followed. Eventually, Mayes was selected as one of eight finalists flown to Chicago, home of the Planters headquarters, for an in-person evaluation. There she met Aria and Hudson, who would unknowingly become her future teammates, as they worked through creative challenges designed to test communicationand teamwork.
On the final day, the candidates were asked to name two people they’d want to spend the next year traveling with. Unbeknownst to each other, Adleigh, Aria and Hudson all chose one another.
A few days later, an early-morning call from Minnesota, home of Hormel Foods, brought the news Mayes had been hoping for: she got the job. Within weeks, she was packing for “Peanut Prep,” a weeklong training where new Peanutters learn everything from PR skills to how to safely drive the Nutmobile.
“It felt like summer camp,” she jokes. “Except we were learning everything about the Nutmobile and Mr. Peanut.”
Since hitting the road, Mayes has traveled over 13,000 miles to cities big and small, sharing her story and representing a crop she’s known her whole life.
“My dad used to bring home peanuts from work,” she says. “Now I’m driving one around the country. It really has come full circle.”
For Mayes, being a Peanutter is more than a job; it’s a celebration of her roots, her community and the peanut that started it all.
By Peyton Woods
Southeastern Peanut Farmer