A local maker’s nod to Kansas City’s Super Bowl spirit — and its love for the Kelce family — has helped her raise thousands of dollars for students in need.
After launching a new mug featuring a cookie recipe from Donna Kelce, the mother of Chiefs star tight end and Taylor Swift boyfriend Travis Kelce, Overland Park-based Annie’s Barn has now raised more than $14,000 that will go towards relieiving school lunch debt across the Kansas City area.
The mugs feature a ‘Mama Kelce’ chocolate chip cookie recipe
LeAnne Stowe owns Annie’s Barn, a mostly online shop specializing in “snarky” custom gifts, many of which include references to local institutions like the Kansas City Chiefs.
Stowe had the idea to feature Donna Kelce’s cookie recipe on a mug after making another piece of Donna Kelce-inspired merchandise: a mug that said “It’s Mama Kelce’s World and we’re all just living in it!”
That initial mug launched last fall, and Donna Kelce herself reached out to Stowe via email commending her for the idea and purchased 20 of them as Christmas gifts.
“Yes I died when I opened the email,” Stowe recalled in a recent social media post.
After that exchange, Stowe asked Kelce for permission to feature her cookie recipe on a new mug, which Kelce approved.
This most recent mug features Kelce’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, along with an emoji illustration of Kelce’s now-famous face.
Mug sales have raised $14K so far for school lunch debt
Following a wave of national publicity for her project, mug orders came pouring in.
Stowe and her team at Annie’s Barn are now tasked with making 2,000 of the cookie recipe mugs to fulfill the orders.
On top of those, Stowe told her followers on social media that her business as a whole has seen a boom, with nearly 55,000 new visitors to her website between the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win and this week, with hundreds of orders for other mugs coming in, as well.
The proceeds from the Donna Kelce mugs will go towards local school districts to pay off school lunch debt.
While plans for distributing the money have not yet been finalized, Stowe said on Facebook that the plan is to divide the funds among a school in the Blue Valley School District, two Shawnee Mission schools, a school in Kansas City’s Northland, a school near Arrowhead Stadium, a rural school and two Olathe schools.
Stowe has raised money for lunch debt before
Last year, Stowe helped reduce local school lunch debt by making and selling celebratory homemade yard signs during another Chiefs Super Bowl title run.
The red-and-yellow signs featured an image of her 1972 yellow Chevy pickup and the Arrowhead logo, along with the phrase, “Get in winners, we’re going winning.”
That project ultimately raked in $4,300, part of which went toward Pawnee Elementary in Overland Park — where Stowe’s wife went to school.
Orders for the Donna Kelce mugs have now been capped, but Stowe said anyone who wants to donate to the cause of relieving lunch debt can do so through Annie’s Barn’s website.
Related news: How this Olathe jewelry maker helped raise $10K for victims of Super Bowl rally shooting
