Football mom Donna Kelce not only shows love to her sons —Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce — on game days,but she’s also supporting elementary school kids in Kansas.
After Kelce, 71, bought 20 mugs emblazoned with “It’s Mama Kelce’s world and we’re all just living in it” to give away as Christmas gifts from Kansas City-area small business Annie’s Barn, the owner reached out to Kelce to collaborate on a new mug for charity.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(584x0:586x2)/annies-barn-donna-kelce-mug-021024-20d2bd5ca8ab42fbbcabb917aa59baf7.jpg "Donna Kelce Let Small Business Use Her Famous Cookie Recipe on Mugs to Help Pay Off Students’ Lunch Debt (Exclusive) (1)")
“After Donna Venmo'd me, I sent a thank you and asked her 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, tells PEOPLE, referring to the famous chocolate chip cookies that Kelce made for Travis and Jason before they both played in the 2023 Super Bowl.
Stowe, who lives with her wife Karen Eskilson, 60, started making the “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” mug in the basem*nt of their Overland Park home after getting Donna's thumbs-up. The mugs include the detailed cookie recipe and an iPhone Memoji of Donna's face on it.
Jason Kelce Chokes Up Congratulating Travis on 2024 Super Bowl Spot: 'Finish This Motherf---er'
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(547x0:549x2)/donna-kelce-021024-2-38cbcc9bfec549458ed83cebca206001.jpg "Donna Kelce Let Small Business Use Her Famous Cookie Recipe on Mugs to Help Pay Off Students’ Lunch Debt (Exclusive) (2)")
“We sold enough mugs to raise $2,000 [in 2023],” Stowe reveals, adding that the mugs sell for $18, with $5 of each sale benefitting her Out of the Red Friday initiative to pay off the lunch debt at local schools.
As Donna gears up to cheer on her son and his Chiefs teammates at Sunday's Super Bowl, Kansas City news outlet KMBC 9 reported that Annie’s Barn raised $2,000 from the recipe mugs to give to schools.
Since that story aired on local TV, Stowe tells PEOPLE, Annie’s Barn has raised an additional $2,100, bringing the total raised to $4,100.
More than 30 million students in the United States can’t afford their school meals, according to the Education Data Initiative, with the national public school meal debt totaling $262 million a year. In Kansas alone, the school meal debt is $23,515,926.
Stowe’s “Mama Kelce’s Cookies” mug is helping chip away at that debt.
“I asked Donna Kelce if she would like to go with me to deliver the checks to the schools,” Stowe says. “I haven’t heard back from her on that, but I know she’s kind of busy with the Super Bowl.”
Embassy of Japan Answers Whether Taylor Swift Can Fly from Tokyo to Vegas in Time for the Super Bowl
Donna is currently in Las Vegas —alongside Jason and other relatives (and potentially, soon, Travis’ superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift) — to watch Travis and the Chiefs battle the San Francisco 49ers for the Super Bowl title.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She previously told PEOPLE 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 Kelce 'Likes' PEOPLE's Instagram Post of Son Travis and Taylor Swift’s PDA-Filled Post-Game Celebration
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.
“It’s been a ride. That’s for sure,” Donna told PEOPLE for the magazine’s 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year list. “Sometimes I feel I'm on some kind of a different planet. I’m like, ‘What has my life become?’ ”
