A Newbie’s Guide to Box Tops for Education
I am a newbie to General Mill’s Box Tops for Education program. Call me late to the party, but at least I have finally arrived! The only time I “participated” in the Box Tops for Education program was one time about five years ago when a family friend came by and raided my kitchen with a pair of scissors. Before she was done, half the boxes in the cupboards had holes in them. I didn’t quite understand her fervor at the time (okay, I didn’t understand at all and was actually quite irritated) but now . . . I think I get it.
My friend cutting up my pantry is a prime example of how Box Tops for Education works so well. At the time, I knew nothing about Box Tops, and couldn’t care less about them, but I still had a huge amount just sitting there in my kitchen. Each little box tops label is worth 10 cents to your school, and I was just going to throw them in the recycling bin. If you are going to be buying the product anyway, you may as well get the cash to give back to your child’s education.
Why Should Homeschoolers Participate?
Little known fact- Homeschool groups and co-ops are eligible to participate in the box tops for education program. Does your church host a homeschool co-op? Do you have a homeschool 4-H group? These groups can sign up on the Box Tops for Education website and start earning money for their programs. Box Tops for Education doesn’t dictate how the money is spent either. You can use it to build a curriculum lending library for local families, you can finance a robotics team, you can use it for fabulous field trips…. anything your group needs! If you groups isn’t signed up yet, all you need is one parent or teacher to agree to be the coordinator and collect all the Box Tops to send in, and then you can register online.
Don’t have a homeschooling group? Your family can use Box Tops for Education as part of a family service project. Collect as many as you can, and then deliver them to a local school. Your children can feel good about helping their local community afford new library books, safe playground equipment, and new technology for the classroom. I personally believe that we should all work together to strengthen our communities, and supporting our local schools is a good start.
How Does It Work?
Collecting Box Tops is easy. When you are at the grocery store, look for specially marked packages that carry the Box Tops for Education label. I would bet you already have at least half a dozen in your pantry right now. There is such a huge selection of participating products that you wouldn’t even need to change your shopping habits to participate.
Right now at Walmart, there are some packages that have bonus Box Tops. You can get 50 cents for your child’s school with just the one purchase. It’s a fantastic deal for a good cause!
Once you get the products home, you can start clipping. Personally (no offense to my friend), I don’t like to clip apart my boxes until we’ve actually used the product inside them, but you can do it any way you like. I keep my clipped labels inside a plastic baggie in one of my kitchen drawers so I don’t lose them.
Then, get them to a Box Tops coordinator, so they can send them to trade them for cash!
Stay Tuned
Next week I’ll have a printable for you to make collecting Box Tops a fun project for your homeschooled child. Make sure you come back to grab it, and in the meantime, swing by Walmart’s Box Tops for Education page to learn more and get registered!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills®. The opinions and text are all mine.
Since eligibility for the Box Tops program only applies to homeschool co-ops that have 501c3 status, it might be helpful to add that info in your post.