In 1934, Lou Gehrig became the first athlete to be featured on a Wheaties cereal box. From there, the ‘Breakfast of Champions’ was born.
This week, Buche Foods in Oacoma released their own custom Wheaties boxes – with a local twist. Boxes featuring the boys basketball teams of Lower Brule, Lyman, and Chamberlain are all available for sale. This spring, all three of these schools made the state boys basketball tournament.
Buche Foods in Oacoma is located just west of Chamberlain. From there, Lower Brule is 27 miles away and Lyman high school in Presho is roughly a 36-mile commute.
“These three schools that went, everybody knows one another. We’re such a close-knit area anyways, it’s just a wonderful thing,” said Oacoma Buche Foods store manager Pat Kerwin.
Along with being a keepsake item, Buche Foods is taking advantage of the opportunity to help raise money for the schools too.
“We’re selling the boxes for $5 and we are in turn donating $5 back to the schools for each box that we sell,” explained Kerwin. “So it’s going to be a beautiful little fundraiser for the local schools, because our schools budgets are always hurting.”
The timing is also pretty good for the students and parents of these three communities.
“It’s graduation weekend. I think the timing is perfect,” Kerwin stated. “We had to go through a few hurdles to make this happen, but we got it done.”
Back in November of 2016, Buche Foods in Gregory did something similar. The area schools of Winner, Colome, and Gregory all won state football titles that fall. As a result, all three schools were featured on Wheaties boxes as well.
This idea of highlighting local high school programs on ‘the breakfast of champions’ box came from RF Buche, the current President of GF Buche Company. RF’s great-grandfather founded Buche Foods in 1905.
In a world in which there is so much doom and gloom, instances such as this remind us all why high school sports are so special in South Dakota. Plus, it’s also a reminder of how connected everyone is in the Mt. Rushmore state.
“You know, it’s awesome. I just want to congratulate those kids for coming through, such trying times. With the pandemic and everything, it’s put additional stress on our students, parents, teachers,” Kewin exclaimed. “I just think it’s wonderful that something good happened, and we’re just happy to be part of the celebration.”
Buche Foods in Oacoma is expected to sell out of their special feature Wheaties boxes in a short period of time. Once the boxes are gone, they’re gone – but the memories of what Lyman, Lower Brule, and Chamberlain accomplished this year will live on forever.
