FOOD FOR THOUGHT
by David LeSueur

This month, as you probably know, we celebrate an important event in Church history. A little over 150 years ago, a visionary man invented something which improved reverence at Sacrament Meetings, made Church more enjoyable for little children and provided teaching opportunities for parents. What I am referring to, of course, is the invention of the Cheerio.
We take Cheerios for granted today, but can you imagine how difficult it would be to sit through Sacrament Meetings with small children without having any Cheerios to give them? One has to admire the pioneer men and women who brought their youngsters to Church and tried to listen to the talks and keep their children entertained without the convenience of Cheerios. In fact, early Church leaders were so concerned with the lack of reverence in meetings that Brigham Young asked a young military convert come up with a solution to the problem.
The man, General Mills, found a solution. His invention was a wholesome finger food which was not messy or noisy and yet satisfied most children enough so that they could sit through church meetings without much trouble. But the brilliance of his idea is that it also teaches children religious principles.
Children learn humility because they have to beg a little before they are allowed to eat any Cheerios. They learn that being greedy does not pay when they grab a big handful of Cheerios but can only manage to get a few of them into their mouth before dropping the rest to the floor. And they learn to share as demonstrated by the Church-wide custom of leaving some Cheerios between the pew cushions for the people in the next meeting.
There is a dark side to this history too. Several splinter groups left the Church because of their "Cheerio-worship." The best known of these apostate groups were the Holy Rollers, famous for their bizarre practice of rolling Cheerios down the aisles during Church. The most notorious group was started by a few return missionaries. They formed a successful multi-level marketing company (GaryK International) in 1973. However, they were sent to prison when people found out that their most popular product - bagel seeds - were actually just ordinary Cheerios.
In spite of some abuses, Cheerios are still an important part of Church culture. Recently some people have even been including Cheerios in their year's supply of food because of a study published in 2005. The research compared fresh Cheerios to Cheerios that were 30 years old. There was no difference in nutritional value and taste tests showed that most people can't tell the difference between fresh and 30 year-old Cheerios.
In conclusion, here is part of a letter sent out to all Bishops: "It has come to our attention that some parents have been bringing Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Sugar Crisp or other sugar-coated breakfast cereals into meetings to feed their children. Cheerios continues to be the only Church-authorized breakfast cereal and members should be gently reminded of this position. Parents should also be reminded to refrain from sneaking Cheerios on Fast Sunday."