Kellogg's CEO suggests cash-strapped Americans may try cereal for dinner

WASHINGTON (TND) — Kellogg's CEO Gary Pilnick says his company’s products could provide relief to those struggling to afford groceries.

His comments came during an appearance on CNBC last week, during which he explained the company is shifting its focus from cereal as a part of breakfast to being a part of any meal. Such a prospect, he said, could prove more affordable in the long term.

If you think about the cost of cereal compared to what they otherwise might do, that’s going to be much more affordable,” Pilnick said.

Pilnick noted eating a bowl of cereal as a meal can cost less than a dollar.

“In general, the cereal category is a place that a lot of folks might come to because the price of a bowl of cereal with milk and with fruit is less than a dollar so you can imagine why our consumer under pressure might find that to be a good place to go," Pilnick said.

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Kellogg’s has made similar pushes for cereal at dinnertime in the past. In 2022, the company touted cereal as a means of saving time in a family’s busy weeknight schedule. It even held a contest awarding $5,000 and a year’s supply of cereal to families making cereal part of evening meals, urging them to “give chicken the night off.”

Despite Pilnick’s claims the effort “is landing really well right now,” former 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said the company is mocking its consumers with the suggestion.

Advertising to hungry people that cereal might be good for dinner is not ‘meeting people where they are.’ It’s exploiting the hungry for financial gain,” Williamson said via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This is the problem with an economic system predicated on the ability to not care. Kellogg should be filling the nations’s food pantries, at the very least.”

Food prices have risen 25% between 2019 and 2023, an analysis from Harvard University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service shows. Americans spent 11.3% of their disposable income on food in 2022, and Walmart now reports seeing an increase in customers who earn $100,000 yearly.

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