Utah jumps for JELL-O

SALT LAKE CITY -- Residents of the Wasatch Valley are celebrating more this month than just global togetherness and the noble spirit of athletic competition. Sunday marks the beginning of JELL-O Week in the Beehive State, and anyone who thinks the locals have forgotten this fact is severely underestimating the Olympic hosts.

The history of JELL-O (invented 1897) goes back nearly as far as that of Utah (incorporated 1896), and the state has been consuming the snack in large quantities for almost the entire time. According to Kraft Foods, which makes JELL-O, households in Utah purchase an average of 21 servings of its colored gelatin every year, the most in the nation. Members of the Mormon church make up 63 percent of the state's population, and their emphasis on family and frugality, as well as their religions ban on caffeine, are the major reasons the sugary snack is so popular. It's a JELL-O-rich environment, says Lynne Belluscio, the curator of the JELL-O Museum in LeRoy, N.Y., where the dessert was invented. People in Utah are unabashedly, unashamedly, JELL-O fans. It's a family tradition.

For visitors who want their own piece of JELL-O, so to speak, a commemorative Olympic pin, featuring a bowl of lime JELL-O squares, is the hottest thing going on the collectibles circuit. "I came here four years ago to get ready for the Olympics," says Stephen Foster, a white-bearded leather crafter from Atlanta asking $500 for his JELL-O pin. "Back then they were hanging on the rack in ZCMI Mall for $7 each. Now everybody's talking about them."

If you can't scrounge a pin, there's always the JELL-O Travelling Museum, at the ZCMI Center Mall until March 5. On Thursday, shoppers wandering through the exhibit gazed upon 105 years of gelatiniana. Debbie Downs, 48, a mother of six from the nearby suburb of West Jordan, said her ancestors have lived in greater Salt Lake City since Utah became a state. Peering into one of the display cases, she pointed to a mold from 1904. "I have that one," she said. "It's been in my family for years."

Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Mark Beech is in Utah covering the Olympics for Sports Illustrated Olympic Daily and CNNSI.com. Check back regularly to read his behind-the-scenes reports from Salt Lake City.

 

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