It’s not unusual to find a surprise inside a box of cereal. Often it’s good, like a coupon or a little toy. Sometimes it’s something nasty, which warrants a stern letter to the manufacturer of said cereal.

And sometimes it's poignant, like the surprise high school teacher Stephane Gaudette got when he opened a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes on Monday morning. The wax paper package inside contained this message:

“This is the very last bag of Canadian cereal for the Canadian market from Kellogg’s London Ontario plant. Fri. Dec. 5, 2014.”

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The bag was signed by three workers who’d been employed at the nine-decade-old plant between 24 and 29 years.

According to the London Free Press, Kellogg’s London plant shut down for good on Dec. 21, putting 500 people out of work. It made 27 cereals, including Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Special K and Rice Krispies. Production was moved to the U.S., though Kellogg’s still operates another plant in Belleville, Ont.

Gaudette, who teaches historyin the northern Ontario town of Timmins, immediately put the bag aside and found a different cereal for his family to have.

“It’s very personal and that’s why I didn’t want to open up the bag,” he told Yahoo Canada News in an interview Monday.

View photos This is the very last bag of Canadian cereal for the Canadian market from Kellogg's London Ontario plant. More

“It was on my mind all the way to work. I couldn’t just leave it there and let it sit in the cupboard and not do anything about it. So I took a few pictures before I left [and sent them to the Free Press].”

The story triggered a wave of interest from additional media and readers. There were hundreds of comments on the Toronto Sun's version of the Free Press story, a lot of them aimed at the provincial government.

Gaudette is rejecting suggestions he cash in on his chance discovery by selling the historic cereal package on eBay. He plans to keep it for his family.

“I find it personally a little bit crass to make money off of a certain article like that where 500 jobs were cut,” Gaudette said, though he hasn’t ruled out donating it to a museum.

Timmins is a resource town and his students come from families who’ve seen their share of mine and mill closures, he said.

“First thing that crossed my mind when I read the message was I’d really like to meet these people and shake their hands,” said Gaudette. “I don’t know if I can say I’m sorry . . . I found it kind of bittersweet.”

Plant closures rattle Canadian psyche

Plant closures, especially those owned by foreign-based companies, trigger a lot of public emotions, playing to our deep-seated image of Canada as a branch-plant economy.

Whether it’s the shuttering of an auto plant, closure of a chocolate factory or the loss of a historic ketchup maker, such closures reinforce the view that Canada can’t sustain a healthy manufacturing sector and is destined to make its living pulling things from the ground, whether minerals, oil or trees.

But business historian Joe Martin considers that mindset outdated. While the job losses from a shutdown can be tragic for those directly affected, the loss of another branch plant is not a reason for hand-wringing.

“I don’t think so,” said Martin, director of the Canadian Business and Financial History Program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “I think we should say what can we do differently now?”

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