B.C. family seeks help finding special Kraft Dinner for autistic son, and Internet responds

Packing a lunch for six-year-old Everett Botwright isn’t easy, says his dad. 

“He’s not your typical kid that has the peanut butter sandwich or the cheese sandwich,” admits Reed Botwright.

The Nanaimo father says his son is autistic and has been paring down the food the he eats over the last three years, to the point where it was becoming ‘a challenge and concern.’

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Much to his parent’s surprise, the grade one student recently discovered a food he actually enjoys: Kraft Dinner Star Wars Mac and Cheese. 

“You might turn up your nose at the nutritional value of Kraft Dinner, but when you’re eating so few foods, and so little variety in your foods, it’s quite a change for him to want to have something that has cheese, and milk, and pasta,” said Botwright.    

“We bought as much as we could and brought it home.”

Call for more KD went viral

While the issue of finding of food Everett enjoys was temporarily solved, another problem emerged. The Star Wars variant of mac and cheese is limited edition, and the Nanaimo, B.C., family has snapped up every last box they can find.

Botwright took to social media to help track down more of the pasta, hoping anyone with a spare box or two might be inspired to donate it for Everett.

Since he made the post on Sunday, the family has been inundated with offers of support, including from someone in Newfoundland. Now they think Everett will have his favourite food available for some time to come.

“It feels like there’s going to be an avalanche, the amount of people who have said, ‘I’ve found an entire flat in Burnaby and I want to send them all to you.’ I think I’m going to need a storage locker.”

Botwright and his wife are hopeful this will be the beginning of Everett enjoying even more foods. 

“He hasn’t found this much joy in food in a while.”

Everett has been gradually limiting the foods he eats, posing challenges for his parents, his dad says.