Students from Paige Kindopp’s Grade 1 class at Mother Teresa Early Childhood were all smiles when Sobeys Lloydminster brought over a cheque for $3,422.50, which was raised through donut sales and is being donated to local non-profits. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
Sobeys brings student-designed donuts to life to support local non-profits
What does 263 lbs of donut icing, 60 lbs of chocolate fudge icing, 10 lbs of sprinkles and a school full of creative kids with kind hearts equal? A total of 5,476 individual donuts sold, bringing in $3,422.50 to go towards local organizations.
Over the past month, students at Mother Teresa Early Childhood Education Centre have been going nuts for donuts after partnering up with Sobeys Lloydminster to create unique, one-of-a-kind donuts to spread kindness to non-profits in the Border City.
The three-week sales campaign was nothing short of a success, with 1,369 four-packs of donuts sold.
Funds are being doled out to the Lloydminster Rescue Squad, the Lloydminster Public Library, the Lloydminster Interval Home Society, Furbabies Furever Homes, the SPCA, as well as Points West Living Lloydminster Inc.
“At the beginning of January we started to create this donut project, and really let it come to life in February,” said Mother Teresa Grade 1 teacher Paige Kindopp.
“Each class designed their own classroom kindness donut, and each of their toppings had a special meaning to it; a random act of kindness,” she said.
“The kids worked together on the topping, the type of donut and the icing colour, then they got to create it as a class.”
The donut creations were then taken to Sobeys where their bakers brought the kids’ visions to life.
“They even copied the exact icing colour that we had, and then we sold them, and $2.50 from every package of four sold went back into the six local organizations selected by students at Mother Teresa.”
Kindopp explained the students got to do some research on various local non-profits before deciding where the funds would go.
Michelle Rusteika, who is the owner/operator of Sobeys in Lloydminster with her husband, Kevin, couldn’t wait to get started on the project after conversations with Kindopp.
“Paige led this and we jumped on as the producers, to bring to life the vision the kids had, and it was so much fun,” she said.
“The kids came up with fantastic ideas and amazing creations, so we got to bring them to life.”
Aside from a quick sugar fix, Rusteika explained this campaign served more of a purpose than initially expected.
“Who knew that donuts would bring joy; that there was joy in the donuts,” she said. “Even the staff jumped right in. Everyone was looking for something to get on board with and be joyful about. There’s smiles with donuts, for sure.”
