Box Tops for Education Raises More than $500 Million for Schools! {Pantry Stock Up Prize Pack Giveaway!}

One thing that I regret not doing before I had children (along with sleeping in later, enjoying eating my food slowly and appreciating taking a shower without anyone talking to me through the door the entire time) is collecting Box Tops for Education.

As I had no children, why would I be interested in the nation's largest school fundraising program?

Well gee, how about the fact that this incredibly easy and beneficial program makes it simple to earn cash for schools by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products? Or that Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for schools online?

Considering that I have long noticed the Box Tops for Education symbols on many of the products that I purchase, I can only kick myself now for not having saved them over the years for my girls' school! In fact, Box Tops for Education has now earned more than $500 million for schools since the program started in 1996 and I wish could have played a much larger role in that incredibly impressive statistic!

A General Mills program, Box Tops for Education began as an experiment on boxes of Cheerios in California with first year earnings of $1 million. Since then, it has grown to include more than 240 participating brands providing needed cash for 90,000 enrolled K-8 schools.

At the heart of the program is more than 75,000 volunteer Box Tops for Education coordinators who motivate local school communities to collect the 10¢ coupons which are redeemed for cash schools use for whatever they need most.

School budget cuts have made the program more and more important over the years as it provides unrestricted cash to help schools with their basic operating needs and programs that would not be possible otherwise, such as field trips, textbooks, musical instruments, playground equipment, classroom technology and arts and cultural programming.

On average, schools in the U.S. earn around $900 annually through the program, but many schools earn more than $20,000 by clipping Box Tops, participating in bonus programs and shopping 300 online eBoxTops retailers at the Box Tops Marketplace.

"I witnessed the power of the program when I visited several schools in the state a few months ago," said New Mexico governor, Susana Martinez. "After seeing how easy it was to earn cash for schools, I started encouraging everyone to participate to help students get the things they need most to improve their education experience. I congratulate Box Tops for Education on reaching this impressive level of support for students everywhere."

To celebrate the milestone of having earned more than half-a-billion dollars, this winter the program is offering a variety of bonus Box Tops on more than 50 million packages at grocery stores and at btfe.com, allowing shoppers to double their earnings with select products.

We were thrilled to celebrate along with Box Tops with an amazing collection of Box Tops Pantry Stock Up items!

This huge package included:

• New Peanut Butter Toast Crunch cereal
• Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix Dark Chocolate Cherry and Protein Salted Caramel
• Fiber One Protein Bars
• Progresso Recipe Starters
• Food Should Taste Good Chips
• Green Giant Fresh Box Tops for Education pencil pouch
• Hamburger Helper Sweet & Sour Chicken and Parmesan Crusted Chicken
• Betty Crocker Mac & Cheese and Au Gratin potatoes
• Kleenex wallet pack and 184 count box
• Scott toilet paper (4 roll) and paper towel roll
• Avery dry erase weekly calendar
• Ziploc bowls and bags
• Yoplait Frozen Yogurt free product coupon

Along with enjoying these tasty and useful products all over our house, you can bet that I will be clipping the Box Tops off of each of them...

...and especially grabbing those special double Box Tops!

If you aren't already collecting Box Tops for Education, now is the perfect time to start! Whether you have children attending one of the participating locations or not, schools can never have too much money to improve their classrooms, programs and more!

To learn more about Box Tops and for a list of participating products and schools, visit www.btfe.com and connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Plus, thanks to the generosity of General Mills and Box Tops, one person will soon have a stocked pantry and a large number of Box Tops to donate as well, because...

One lucky person will win a Box Tops for Education Pantry Stock Up Prize Pack!

Entry-Form

Disclosure: Information, products and promotional items have been provided by General Mills and Box Tops for Education and its program partners.