Winning big with soup

SOUTH JORDAN — For decades, schools have collected Campbell's soup labels to purchase classroom materials and school supplies. But education leaders say they have never seen anything like what Campbell's soup points did for Daybreak Elementary.

Instead of a set of textbook markers or other classroom supplies typically purchased with a few thousand soup points, Daybreak walked away with 45 new computers, two minivans, iPods, digital cameras, playground equipment and software — among other things.

Teachers had planned on it being tough for a while at the school, which is only in its second year of existence. New schools have difficulty in the beginning getting supplies and materials they need, said Doree Strauss, principal of Daybreak.

She said older schools have built up materials — books, overheads and other learning materials accumulated from years past — since they get money each year for new supplies.

But new schools don't have that built-up stock.

"You do get a start-up budget, but it doesn't cover it all — the soup points gave us a boost that pushed us years ahead," Strauss said.

It all started with parent Angela Miller, who heads up the Campbell's Soup Labels for Education program at the school. She went out hunting for ways to infuse the school's account.

The Campbell's program awards free educational equipment to schools in exchange for proofs of purchase from the Campbell family of brands.

But collecting cans and saving labels can only get you so far when each label is worth only between one and five label points, Strauss said.

Miller happened to run across a sweepstakes contest sponsored by Campbell's and Wal-Mart where people could win millions of points that would go toward their school.

So after making some calls she entered about 30 other moms at the school into the contest multiple times in hopes of improving the odds.

It wasn't long before they heard the good news: nine grand prize winners.

Total winnings translated into 9.1 million points, which rang up to around $100,000.

The catch was that since the awards were in the form of points and not cash, the prizes had to be picked from the Campbell's catalogue.

Strauss said each teacher got to go on a shopping spree for whatever items they thought would best beef up their classrooms. They now have iPod listening labs, digital camera and Photoshop lessons, a state-of-the-art computer lab and outdoor equipment.

But there are a few things school leaders wanted that were not in the Campbell's catalogue that they would need actual money to purchase. So leaders opted to buy two new minivans with their points.