#ad Back to School with Tyson and Project A+

The school Little Crafter will be attending this fall is just plain fabulous.  Seriously.  It’s a small private school with amazing teachers and staff, an emphasis on character development as well as academics, and mentoring programs for students and families.  What really sealed the deal for us was the fact that the classrooms are multi-age, meaning that instead of being in a “Kindergarten” class, Little Crafter will be classified as “Early Elementary” along with 12 other children ranging in age from 5-7.  For reading and math, he’ll be grouped based on his ability, not his age.  Which means that my little guy who can add double digit numbers in his head won’t be crazy-bored or making trouble while a teacher teaches the class to recognize the number 2.  Can you hear my sigh of relief?

His first day of school isn’t until September 3, but for the past few weeks, they have been doing at least one family event each week to get students together and give them a chance to socialize, have fun, and interact with the new families like us.  Last week, we attended a Nature Craft night where the kids painted rocks for the school garden, made collages, and created bouquets out of fresh flowers they picked.  Can you sense Little Crafter’s excitement?  This coming Thursday, the event is a Dessert Social.  I’m so there.  When I told LC about it he said, “I am definitely going.”  That’s my boy.

One of the school’s ongoing projects is a really cool playscape where students can play and learn at the same time, but it takes time, volunteers, and funding to make it happen.  Being a private school, they obviously don’t get funding like the local public schools do, so it’s up to students and staff to do various fundraising activities, like a Read-a-Thon, Car Washes, and other things throughout the year so that projects like this one can happen.  That’s why I really appreciate finding out about fundraising programs supported by various companies and stores in our area that can help raise additional money for the cool things LC’s school wants to do.

Did you know that just by shopping at Safeway, you can raise funds for your child’s school?  Right now, they’re running a Back to School 10% Donation Program; all you have to do is buy products marked with these special labels that say, “Buy this item and support your school.” 

 Before you shop, head to the Safeway website, which will direct you to sign up for eScrip.  After entering your information, you get to choose the school you want to receive your donations.  Then, you connect your account to your Safeway card.

 Once you’re signed up, Safeway automatically donates 10% of the price of any selected products you buy to your school each time you shop!  If you haven’t connected your card, there’s also a special code on the bottom of your receipt that you can use to make the donation after your shopping trip.  On our most recent trip to Safeway, we saw lots of products that qualified for the donation program; everything from frozen food to juice to yogurt to Listerine and deodorant.  Just by purchasing items you’d already normally buy, your child’s school can benefit!

Another great way to earn money for the school of your choice is through the Tyson Project A+ program.

 Many of the Tyson products that are available in the freezer section are labeled with a special Project A+ label that says “Support Your School.”

All you have to do is clip and save those labels and turn them in to your school so that the project coordinator can redeem them.  Tyson will donate 24 cents per label!  There’s a list on the Project A+ website showing all of the qualifying products, including Fun Nuggets, Any’Tizers, Fully Cooked Frozen Chicken Strips, Chicken Breast Tenders, and many more!  You can do a quick search on the Project A+ site to see if your school is already enrolled, and if not, you can sign it up yourself in less than five minutes.  Little Crafter’s school wasn’t on there yet, so I enrolled it…we want to take advantage of those easy rewards!

I love that it’s so easy to raise funds to support Little Crafter’s school; I don’t have to sell anything or do anything out of the ordinary.  All I have to do is shop for the groceries I would normally buy and his school gets donations!  It’s a real win-win!  They get funding for the playscape and for other fun activities and projects that will benefit my son and his classmates, and we get delicious and easy meals.

Like this one.  Our family has been purchasing Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Strips for a long time now because we love the taste and find them to be better than the competition.  We use them in various meals, like my Healthy Chicken and Vegetable Alfredo recipe and for this Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza.  Our family loves pizza, but we don’t ever order it from local carryout places because hubby is lactose intolerant and can’t have the cheese.  Fortunately, we discovered that we can make it ourselves at home in a way that each of us gets exactly the kind of pizza we like and that’s far less greasy than carryout!

 

Ingredients:
– ready made pizza crust {we use Boboli Thin Crust}
– Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Strips
– BBQ sauce {we use KC Masterpiece Original}
– pizza sauce {I like Ragu Homemade Style, hubs likes Ragu Chunky Sauteéd Onion and Garlic}
– mozzerella cheese {I prefer mine finely shredded}

To make it, first I cut the pizza crust in half and slide the halves apart so that my cheese won’t touch hubby’s portion.  Then, I spread our preferred sauces on the crust.  I sprinkle mozzerella cheese on one half and leave the other half as is.

Then, I break the Tyson Chicken Strips into smaller, bite-sized pieces and place them in a bowl.

 

Cover them with your favorite BBQ sauce until they look well-coated, like this:

All that’s left to do is place as much of the chicken as you like on each half of the pizza.  You can also add red and yellow peppers, onion, and other veggies if you like.  We do that sometimes, and it’s a tasty variation!

Bake your pizza according to the directions on the crust package; ours bakes for 12 minutes at 450 F.  And here’s what you get!  Hubby’s and mine, just the way we like it!

And it tastes even better knowing that Tyson is donating 24 cents to my chosen school each time I clip a Project A+ Label and Safeway is donating 10% of the net price of selected items on my list too…I’m helping just by shopping for and eating the things I like!  Pretty sweet, huh?  What about your school?  Is it enrolled in both of these great programs?

Hugs & Glitter!

Connect with Tyson on:
Project A+ Website // Facebook // Twitter