Foodland caps help school earn milk money

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

From left, Zack Rubley, Cristian Chaparro, and Danna Wells of Betty Clendenon’s Irving College Elementary School third-grade class enjoy the spoils of a milk cap contest sponsored by Kingwood Foodland. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

Milk money. The phrase brings back memories of all those school cafeteria meals and the cartons of ice cold sweet milk that went along with them.

Giving a child milk money was just part of what a parent did as the child headed off to school.

But Noel Pepper and Kingwood Foodland have taken the concept of giving students their milk money to another level.

The local grocery is giving Irving College Elementary School 10 cents for every milk cap it turns in that comes from a gallon of Foodland milk. The caps have a special sticker identifying them for the program.

“This is something that I came up with to try to give back to the community,” said Pepper. “Principal Trevathan and I thought this was a good idea for the kids. Milk is nutritious. The parents buy the milk, the children collect the caps and turn them in. It’s a chance to give something back to the school.

“This will be an ongoing program,” he added. “It starts again after today. Then every year around tax time the caps will be counted and the school will get another check.”

Pepper actually attended Irving College when it was a high school. He started there in 1960 and graduated in 1964. It obviously pleases him to be able to do something for his alma mater.

Irving College students have collected almost 700 caps since the program began at the start of 2002.

The class with the most caps is rewarded with a “Milk and Cookies” party with the treats provided by Kingwood Foodland. This year the winners were the children from Ms. Betty Clendenon’s third-grade class.

Since the children had a relatively short time to collect caps this year, Pepper added another $130 to the $70 earned from the 700 caps and awarded the school a check for $200.

The school is very appreciative of his efforts and the participation of the community in the program.

“Irving College community is known for its support of the school,” said Principal Michael Trevathan. “Mr. Noel Pepper, a graduate of Irving College High School, has not forgotten his alma mater. I appreciate his decision to help our school and to promote his business as well. It is always a pleasure to work with him and other people in the community who have close ties to the school. The ultimate winners, though, are our students.”

The check was presented to the school on Monday by Pepper and the party for Ms. Clendenon’s winning class followed.

In fact, it was a little hard to decide which part the students enjoyed most, the milk and cookies or the cash.