The amount of time we spend cooking dinner has been on a steep decline for decades. With increasingly busy schedules and other dinnertime distractions, American families are spending 1/3 less time in the kitchen than they did in 1990. As dinner at home has become deprioritized, a whole generation of families is missing out on the important relationship-building moments in the kitchen and around the table. To help bring families back into the kitchen Uncle Ben’s, the category leader in rice, set out to tackle one of the biggest obstacles they face in having dinner together.

To get families cooking, we needed to remove one of the biggest obstacles to nightly dinners together. So for one month out of the school year, we cancelled homework. Partnering with elementary and middle schools across the country, Uncle Ben’s replaced students’ textbook-based homework with cooking assignments that they can complete with the help of their parents. Participating schools would swap homework assignments in subjects like History, Science and Math for recipes that brought the lessons to life in tangible and tasty ways. Through our Kitchen Lessons content, we inspired families with recipe-based lessons like “Chili con Ratios,” and “Lemon Chicken and Literature” that provided both an academic benefit as well as a fun and interactive way for families to bond over cooking dinner.

Uncle Ben’s needed to grow share among households with children and be seen as an optimistic ally in the kitchen among families. In order to drive the business and earn an unfair share of retailer space and consumer interest during the Fall back-to-school time period, the brand would target “Parents Under Pressure” – the overscheduled and overcommitted parents looking for helpful shortcuts at home and in the kitchen. An audience that looks for time saving tactics around dinner they look to social media, recipe inspiration sites and in-store communications to guide their family meal planning decisions. To both inspire meal choice and remind parents of the importance of cooking together with their kids, the brand would need to show that more than meals are made in the kitchen.

The Cancelled Homework initiative was launched in schools across the country in August 2018. Partnering with celebrity influencer Anna Faris we leveraged the power of social and PR to show parents how cooking can provide academic as well as emotional benefits. With easy to follow recipes participating students could extend their learning beyond the classroom and into their family kitchen. The academically-infused recipes were also made available on the program’s online hub and at major retailers. Amplifying our mission and further inspiring parents to cook with their kids, our Kitchen Lessons online videos showcased the ease and joy of learning through cooking with Uncle Ben’s. And as a finale in December 2018, we capped off our nationwide contest that challenged parents and their kids to cook more dinners together, with the winning family taking home a cash prize and a $30,000 donation to their local school for a cafeteria makeover.

By cancelling homework, Uncle Ben’s inspired families to eat more dinners together. Spawning national headlines the campaign gained over 546MM earned media impressions and program participation from 12 schools in 8 metro areas, reaching 27 classrooms and 759 participating students. During the course of the Cancelled Homework initiative, the brand grew household penetration 4% to 51% of the total ready to heat rice segment and saw an 8.4% lift against households with kids. The effort also drove category expansion, with Uncle Ben’s contributing 63% of all growth over the same period a year ago.