Although a football game, the Cereal Bowl trophy given to the winning team is not scored on points from touchdowns on the gridiron, but on the number of cereal boxes collected by each school’s supporters for the pantry.
“It’s really important for us,” Elk Grove Township Supervisor George Busse said of cereal boxes collected at the event. “It had lasted us for a year, but not last year or this year because demand is so high.” He said the township pantry is currently feeding 1,100 individuals or families a month.
In the first Cereal Bowl in 2016, Rolling Meadows defeated Elk Grove collecting 1,040 boxes of cereal to the Grenadiers’ 250, however, each year since, it was Elk Grove collecting the most boxes and winning the cup, which currently sits in the EGHS trophy case.
The rivalry has been particularly intense among the principals of the two schools, Paul Kelly at EGHS and Megan Kelly at RMHS, who, outside their professional relationship, are also husband and wife.
The rivalry has grown beyond the two schools to the communities of Elk Grove Village and Rolling Meadows, with mayors Craig Johnson of Elk Grove and Lara Sanoica of Rolling Meadows each supporting their respective schools this year.
At Tuesday’s (Oct. 8) Elk Grove Village Board meeting, 300 boxes of cereal were stacked in front of the village trustee dias in the village council chambers, and a bowl of Sugar Smacks was poured in bowls for each trustee and Mayor Johnson. Collection boxes are also set up in Elk Grove Village Hall outside the council chambers.
Besides Paul Kelly, one of the chief cheerleaders for the Cereal Bowl is Elk Grove Village trustee and EGHS social studies teacher Joe Bush.
Bush said he knows the Mustangs are looking to end their losing streak in the Cereal Bowl, so set the goal of EGHS collecting 2,000 boxes this year. He said he was confident EGHS supporters could collect 1,700. Johnson said he personally purchased 300 more to push EGHS over the top to reach the 2,000 box goal.
“Earlier this year, the Rolling Meadows City Council resolved to fund two mobile food pantries every month to supplement the four township food pantries that serve Rolling Meadows and combat hunger in our community,” Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica said in an email to the Journal. “We know how to get the job done when we work together. Rolling Meadows residents are not only the most generous in the Northwest suburbs, but we won’t back down from a challenge. We will take this game ‘cereal-ously’ because grains and yards gained go hand in hand. See you on the field, Elk Grove!”
Last year, Elk Grove Township officials said 2,827 boxes were collected by the two schools for the Cereal Bowl. The total number of boxes collected since 2016, with the exception of 2020 when the event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was 14,285 boxes.
Credit: Tom Robb/Journal & Topics
