A Nanaimo father’s online shout out for Star Wars Kraft Dinner for his son with autism has bagged hundreds of boxes of the limited edition entree with help from grocery retailers, the manufacturer and a famous Canadian actor.
Getting kids who are picky eaters to chow down can be a chore, as is the case with Everett Botwright, 6, who suffers from autism and can get fussy about food and had even turned off of regular Kraft Dinner. That was until he spotted a box of Star Wars KD in the kitchen cupboard.
“It was nine o’clock at night and bedtime, but my wife was so excited to hear that he wanted to eat something new, so she made it right then and there and he loved it,” said Reed Botwright, Everett’s dad. “So we went out and bought some more.”
But when local retailers’ supplies ran out, .
“A bunch of friends and family started sharing it and a contact of a contact on Twitter reached out to William Shatner and he actually re-tweeted it directly to Kraft to kind of get people interested in it,” Botwright said. “Since then I’ve actually had a private message session with William Shatner where he actually gave me some pretty incredible parenting tips from his experiences. It’s been very, very surreal.”
Kraft tracked down 12 cases (144 boxes) of Star Wars KD and Real Canadian Superstore Nanaimo contacted Superstores on the Lower Mainland and managed to procure another 411 boxes.
On Friday, the News Bulletin received a message from Phil Demchuk, 72, in Winnepeg, Man., who managed to buy 100 boxes of Star Wars KD at a Superstore there – he made multiple trips through the checkout line because of the store’s 14-boxes-per-customer limit – and will be shipping it to the Botwright’s home in Cinnabar Valley.
Hundreds of the boxes of KD were delivered Saturday.
“It’s so overwhelming, but at the same time it’s so good,” Botwright said. “Like, the sentiment we’re getting from people is just incredible.”