Lost Phelps contract benefits food bank

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 (UPI) -- U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps lost a lucrative contract when Kellogg's dumped him over a picture but a food bank came out a big winner, officials said.

The photograph showing Phelps smoking a marijuana pipe at a party convinced the cereal company to pull his contract, leaving Kellogg's with about 3,000 boxes of cereal featuring the swimmer's image.

The solution, CNN reported, was to donate 2 tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank. It was indeed a welcome donation with food banks across the country reporting shortages.

"Thousands of families benefited from the donation," Christopher Wiley, the food bank's director of development, told CNN. "It was a surprise to us. We were lacking a lot of cereal. It is a great product many low-income families really need."

Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He admitted "regrettable behavior" after a British newspaper published the controversial photograph in February. Kellogg's was the only sponsor to drop the athlete.