The basic idea is for a school to submit coupons cut from the packages of designated items. The coupons are worth varying amounts, most commonly 10 cents a label, meaning that to get $500, a school has to collect 5,000 labels. The program was originally limited to General Mills products, but at the start of the 2010 school year three new corporate partners were added: Land O'Lakes butter, eggs, and cheese; Welch's jams and jellies; and Brita water filters. Additionally, schools can also earn electronic coupons by having participants shop online at more than 150 stores through the Box Tops Marketplace and Reading Room. Qualifying purchases earn eBoxTops that are electronically credited and donated to the selected school.
One of the biggest problems with this program concerns the boxtops4education.com website, where coordinators access data, submit forms and print confirmations. Each school in the program has a designated coordinator who has to submit data by a certain date and time. Failure to submit the proper form can forfeit the school's points. When General Mills changed its browser system in 2009, complaints were rampant that coordinators could not get in to make their reports. A simple fix was discovered by suggesting the coordinators switch to a Firefox browser if using Windows systems and Safari if using an Apple system.
The ability to print and process the correct special offer forms is not as easily resolved. When General Mills periodically sets up special offer points, the company selects products for which it will offer double or more points. Complaints flooding the boxtops4education.com blog and community forum concern downloading the forms required for these special offers and then making sure the participants of the local schools understand it is only specific products that are involved in the promotion. Even when the correct forms are used and sent in, complaints continue that General Mills does not always accept the original submission. The blog site users encourage participants to photocopy special-entry submission forms and coupons.
As the Box Tops for Education and similar programs have grown, studies have focused on how programs requiring food purchases can affect the student participants. In 2004, the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity published an article by Dr. Mary Story and Dr. Simone French of the University of Minnesota. This study brings to light the advertising pressures put on families to comply with the requirements to purchase products for coupons. It documents how food decisions can cause nutritional problems in the children and even cause obesity if the products are high in sugar, salt and fat. Program participants have to decide whether participating in coupon-collection programs is worth the risk to the child's physical well-being.
Typically, the Box Tops for Education Program is handled by PTA and other parental groups who volunteer to raise money for their children's schools and then distribute the funds so that all the children benefit from the funding. In those instances, there are few complaints about how the money is distributed. However, in schools with low volunteer involvement, teachers complain that the distribution of money inside the school is not always fair. Consequently, some teachers feel it is not worth their time to encourage participation in their individual classrooms. One solution is to provide teachers a proportionate share based on what their class earns. For example, if $1,000 is raised at the school and one teacher's class is responsible for $400 of that amount, that teacher's classroom should get $400 spent on its needs.