CELEBRITY
Donna Kelce Let Small Business Use Her Famous Cookie Recipe on Mugs to Help Pay Off Students’ Lunch Debt (Exclusive)
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Annie’s Barn owner Annie Stowe, who makes the mugs in her basement, told PEOPLE they have so far raised $4,100
Football mom Donna Kelce not only shows love to her sons — Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce — on game days, but she’s also supporting elementary school kids in Kansas.
After Kelce, 71, bought 20 mugs emblazoned with “It’s Mama Kelce’s world and we’re all just living in it” to give away as Christmas gifts from Kansas City-area small business Annie’s Barn, the owner reached out to Kelce to collaborate on a new mug for charity.
After Donna Venmo’d me, I sent a thank you and asked her if I could put her cookie recipe on a mug and donate $5 per mug sold to pay off elementary school lunch debt — and she said yes,” Annie Stowe, 59, tells PEOPLE, referring to the famous chocolate chip cookies that Kelce made for Travis and Jason before they both played in the 2023 Super Bowl.
Stowe, who lives with her wife Karen Eskilson, 60, started making the “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” mug in the basement of their Overland Park home after getting Donna’s thumbs-up. The mugs include the detailed cookie recipe and an iPhone Memoji of Donna’s face on it.
We sold enough mugs to raise $2,000 [in 2023],” Stowe reveals, adding that the mugs sell for $18, with $5 of each sale benefitting her Out of the Red Friday initiative to pay off the lunch debt at local schools.
As Donna gears up to cheer on her son and his Chiefs teammates at Sunday’s Super Bowl, Kansas City news outlet KMBC 9 reported that Annie’s Barn raised $2,000 from the recipe mugs to give to schools.
Since that story aired on local TV, Stowe tells PEOPLE, Annie’s Barn has raised an additional $2,100, bringing the total raised to $4,100.
More than 30 million students in the United States can’t afford their school meals, according to the Education Data Initiative, with the national public school meal debt totaling $262 million a year. In Kansas alone, the school meal debt is $23,515,926.
Stowe’s “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” mug is helping chip away at that debt.
“I asked Donna Kelce if she would like to go with me to deliver the checks to the schools,” Stowe says. “I haven’t heard back from her on that, but I know she’s kind of busy with the Super Bowl.”