OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Tania Castro from the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee
How long have you been with the Nutmobile?
So, I started with Katie and Mason on June 1st. We met May 31st. June 1st was our first day on the job. We trained for about nine days in Austin, Minnesota. We like to call it “Peanut Prep” and after the nine days we hit the road.
Now I understand the meaning of ”class”. So you are Class 10 (Tenth group to graduate from “Peanut Prep”)...
Yes, Class 10.
What did you do before this? How did you get this job?
So I’m a little different than Mason and Katie. They just graduated from college in May. I actually graduated college in December of 2021. After that, I started working for the government. I worked for a government agency in southern Nevada that did all public transportation, roadway planning… Funny story, one day I was picking up lunch from that job in Las Vegas and the Nutmobile passed me. And I was like, “This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” So, I snapped a picture of it. I posted it on my Instagram. My friend responded that it’s the Nutmobile, so I started doing research on it. And I came across their TikTok and Class 9 was doing really well with it. This seems like fun. Luckily, they were accepting applications at the time, so I decided to apply and here I am.
What’s it made of?
The outside is made out of fiberglass and pool noodles. If anybody ever comes across the Nutmobile, you’ll see the ridges. Those are actually pool noodles covered in fiberglass.
Yes, it’s definitely conversation starter.
What’s the engine or the rest of it?
So it’s built on a 2017 Isuzu chassis. That’s the base of it. And then they built the nut on top of it.
And then 2017 … and Class 10…[Five year old Nutmobile vs ten years of Peanutters-What’s missing?]
Yes.
What happened?
Planters used to be owned by Kraft Heinz before this.
When it was owned by Kraft Heinz there were three Nutmobiles on the road. So, there were more Peanutters than three when Hormel adopted the program and we stuck with this one. So, if you ever come across the Nutmobile, this is the only one.
What did you study at school?
I did journalism with a concentration in Marketing, a minor in Business Marketing and the second degree in Spanish.
Wow.
If anybody’s interested in driving the Nutmobile and applications open back up, I say go for it. Honestly, it’s an experience of a lifetime. You’ll get to save this for the rest of your life. You get to drive a giant peanut across the United States and you get to visit so many places in so many communities. There’s definitely a great opportunity.
So all the 48 continental states?
We’re trying to get to 48.
Do you collect anything from all these states?
I do! I collect magnets. So, growing up, my grandma always had her magnets on her fridge. My uncle traveled a lot when he was younger, so he would bring her magnets back. Everywhere that I go, I buy a magnet.
That’s really cool.
Thank you.
Yeah, so I do magnets. Katie does stickers and Mason is trying to do hats. So, we’re trying to see how many hats he can collect on the road.
We were talking about it earlier today and he has about 20 so far. We’ll see how many he ends up with.
I think about a couple times a week, how crazy it is that if I didn’t leave work that day to get lunch…so I am very grateful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
