Duluth Area’s “Cheerios Challenge” Raises $50,000 in One Week

Duluth area residents have raised tens of thousands of dollars in just a few days in response to comments made by billionaire Kathy Cargill.

The “Cheerios Challenge” began last week in response to comments made by Cargill in a Wall Street Journal report. After the billionaire began buying up land in Duluth’s Park Point neighborhood, residents and even Mayor Roger Reinert started to inquire about her intentions with the properties.

The billionaire then referred to the community as “small-minded” in the report. After receiving a letter from Mayor Reinert about the properties, Cargill said in the report “I think an expression that we all know – don’t pee in your Cheerios – well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community.”

Duluth residents did not take kindly to the comments and the Cheerios Challenge was born. The goal was to donate as many boxes of cereal and outright donations to local nonprofits as possible. And according to a Northern News Now report, the results of the challenge were better than anyone could have expected.

Within one week of the Wall Street Journal report being published, local nonprofits in Duluth reported that over 800 Cheerio boxes were donated to their food shelves, along with over $50,000 to address food insecurity in the region.

“I don’t think any of us expected the response that would come from this initiative,” the organizers of the challenge said it a statement earlier this week. “We thought that we would see some boxes of Cheerios come through the doors, and a few financial contributions, but to see the challenge stretch outside the Twin Ports, and even outside of Minnesota with donations from coast to coast was something that we didn’t anticipate.”