THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Wonder Bread, the iconic brand that has brought joy and innovation to kitchen tables and lunch boxes across America for decades, is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. To help celebrate, the company has partnered with national nonprofit organization AdoptAClassroom.org to bring the “Wonder of Science” into classrooms with the help of Emily Calandrelli, an American science communicator, MIT engineer, and host of Emily’s Wonder Lab, a children’s educational series on Netflix.
Through the “Wonder of Science” initiative, Calandrelli joined a number of middle and high school virtual classrooms to demonstrate science experiments and answer questions about her career and experiences as a scientist and educator. At the end of each event, Emily announced that Wonder Bread has donated $10,000 to their school to improve STEM education and ease the financial burden on teachers who may purchase their own classroom supplies.
“There was no better way to celebrate our 100th anniversary than to pay it forward to teachers and students with the help of our partners, Emily and AdoptAClassroom.org,” said John Steed, senior vice president of legacy brands at Flowers Foods. “Wonder Bread is proud to be a part of countless childhood memories, and we’re dedicated to promoting the sense of wonder that comes with learning about the world as a child. Our hope is that each of these events we’ve put together throughout the year so far will inspire kids to be curious and learn more.”
Kids and parents across the nation were also invited to tune in to free virtual livestream events with Emily Calandrelli where she demonstrated additional experiments and showed how to safely conduct them at home.
Wonder Bread donated a total of $100,000 to AdoptAClassroom to benefit the schools that participated in the virtual events with Calandrelli. Schools from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, New York, and more have been given $10,000 each to improve their science programs and provide new equipment for students and faculty.
“Partnering with Wonder Bread and Emily Calandrelli to benefit science programs across the country is exactly the type of unique initiative that we love to be a part of,” said Ann Pifer, executive director of AdoptAClassroom.org. “We’re looking forward to seeing the real-world impact that this donation and these events have on the students who have been a part of the campaign. STEM Is a critical piece of our education system that we always want to do more to help improve.”
For more details on the campaign and its impact on students, visit wonderbread.com/anniversary or follow @WonderBreadUSA, @TheSpaceGal, and @Adopt_Classroom.
About Wonder Bread
Founded in 1921 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Wonder Bread is credited with the popularization of sliced bread in the U.S. and captures the “wonder” that founder Elmer Cline experienced when first watching a hot air balloon race. A century later, Wonder Bread remains an iconic brand in lunchrooms, at barbecues, at picnics and in lunch boxes across the country.
About Flowers Foods
Headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO) is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, with 2019 sales of $4.1 billion. Flowers Foods operates bakeries across the country that produce a wide range of bakery products. Among the company’s top brands are Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder and Tastykake. Learn more at flowersfoods.com.
About AdoptAClassroom.org
We are a national, award-winning nonprofit that provides the most flexible and accountable funding for PreK-12 teachers and schools throughout the U.S. Our proprietary, easy-to-use education fundraising platform helps teachers, principals, and administrators give every child the tools they deserve to succeed in school. Since 1998, we have raised $50 million and supported 5.5 million students. As a 501(c)(3) organization, we hold a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and a platinum rating of transparency from GuideStar. For more information, or to make a donation, please visit www.adoptaclassroom.org.
