W.K. Kellogg: Legacy of Cereal

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Will Keith Kellogg was born on April 7, 1860, in Battle Creek Michigan. He was a shy and quiet yet hard-working young man, but he did not thrive in the classroom. He was described as “dim-witted” by his teachers, even though it really was his sight that was the problem- he couldn’t see the chalkboard during classes. Even though he wasn’t unintelligent, he ended up dropping out of school after sixth grade at age 14, a common occurrence at that time.. He then worked a variety of jobs, such as a stock boy and a traveling broom salesman. He worked without anything really outstanding until he was 46 years old. In 1894, while Kellogg was working as a clerk for his brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a world-renowned hospital practicing the customs of the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church that many wealthy people from around the world chose when they were ill, he had an idea. As a Seventh-Day Adventist, he was a vegetarian and he wanted to find a healthy vegetarian option for breakfast food that many people could enjoy. While he was boiling wheat to make into dough, he forgot about it and left it sit for a few hours. When he finally came back, the wheat had softened, but he rolled it anyway. When he rolled it, however, the wheat formed into flakes. He decided to bake the flakes so they would become crunchy, and modern breakfast cereal was born. W.K. and his brother decided to try making more cereal products, and their end result was baked flakes made from corn. It was healthy and tasty, and the patients at the Sanitarium loved their invention, so the Kelloggs decided to start selling their corn flakes commercially.
In 1898, Kellogg and his brother started the Sanitas Food Company. It was a mail-order business m...

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...s, combined with his generosity, make W.K. Kellogg not only a talented businessman, but a generous philanthropist. His ideas, creativity, and generosity still have a great impact on all of us in the world today.

Works Cited

Ament, Phil. "Will Keith Kellogg." The Great Idea Finder. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. .
"Kellogg Company." Reference for Business. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. .
"Kellogg's Corn Flakes." Lemelson- MIT. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jan. 2005. Web. 30 Aug. 2013. .
"Our Founder." W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. .
"Will Keith Kellogg." NNDB. 2013. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. .

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