Donna Kelce, a football mom, not only displays love to her sons, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, on game days, but she also helps elementary school youngsters in Kansas.
After Kelce, 71, purchased 20 mugs from Kansas City-area small company Annie’s Barn with the message “It’s Mama Kelce’s world and we’re all just living in it” to give out as Christmas presents, the owner approached Kelce about collaborating on a new cup for charity.
“After Donna Venmo’d me, I sent her a thank you and asked if I could put her cookie recipe on a mug and donate $5 per mug sold to pay off elementary school lunch debt — and she said yes,” Annie Stowe, 59, says, referring to Kelce’s famous chocolate chip cookies, which she made for Travis and Jason before they both played in the 2023 Super Bowl.
Stowe, who lives with her wife Karen Eskilson, 60, began producing the “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” cup in the basement of their Overland Park house after receiving Donna’s approval. The cups include a thorough cookie recipe and an iPhone Memoji of Donna’s face on them.
“We sold enough mugs to raise $2,000 [in 2023],” Stowe explains, adding that the mugs sell for $18, with $5 from each sale going to her Out of the Red Friday campaign to wipe off lunch debt at local schools.
As Donna prepares to cheer on her son and his Chiefs teammates in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Kansas City news site KMBC 9 reports that Annie’s Barn collected $2,000 from the recipe mugs to donate to schools.
Since that story appeared on local TV, Stowe reports that Annie’s Barn has raised an additional $2,100, bringing the total raised to $4,100. According to the Education Data Initiative, more than 30 million children in the United States cannot afford their school meals, resulting in a $262 million national public school lunch debt each year. In Kansas alone, the school lunch debt is $23,515,926.
Stowe’s “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” mug is helping to reduce that debt. “I asked Donna Kelce if she would like to go with me to deliver the checks to the schools,” Stowe said. “I haven’t heard back from her on that, but I know she’s really busy with the Super Bowl.
Donna is currently in Las Vegas — alongside Jason and other relatives (and Travis’ superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift) — to watch Travis and the Chiefs battle the San Francisco 49ers for the Super Bowl title.
She previously said that the chocolate chip cookie recipe is “an absolute favorite for me and everyone in the family” and that she hopes other people “will enjoy them as much as we have through the years and gather in the kitchen with their own families and friends to bake them, just as I do with mine.”
Here is the recipe that Donna let Annie’s Barn use on the mugs:
1½ cups sweet cream butter (3 sticks)
1½ cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda (dissolved in 2 tbsp. of hot water to activate; microwave water first then stir in baking soda to dissolve)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake or pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1½ tsp. salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Donna made headlines in February 2023 when both of her NFL sons competed against each other in Super Bowl LVII a.k.a the Kelce Bowl. The Chiefs won the championship game 38-35.
