Some organic and other brands perceived as more healthful are selling well, so General Mills has added three organic cereals to its Annie’s line of children’s foods. By April, it hopes to introduce Frosted Oat Flakes, Berry Bunnies and Cocoa Bunnies in Whole Foods stores. 
 
 Kellogg’s, which Mr. Bryant told investors this month had not always been on top of consumer tastes, is banking on a better mix of healthful cereals. It has just introduced a Nourish line of Special K with quinoa, and is looking at ways to repackage cereal into single servings and more eco-friendly bags. 
 
 The dream of all these companies is to capture the all-powerful and elusive millennial eater, who just isn’t all that into cereal for breakfast. It’s just too much work, for one thing. Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it. 
 
 In the college cafeteria, eating any cereal you want for three meals a day is no longer a rite of passage. Bon Appétit Management Company, the California food service firm whose clients include tech giants like Google and more than 100 college campuses, said other options were preferred at breakfast. Locally made granola, protein bars and hot cereals like congee or oatmeal are popular. 
 
 The cold cereals that baby boomers grew up on have been relegated to a category called “comfort brands,” and Bon Appétit offers only a couple of choices on its traditional cafeteria lines. At Emory University in Atlanta, it’s Raisin Bran and Lucky Charms. Cheerios are served not because everyone has loved them since childhood, but because they are gluten free. The organic offering is Kashi Sweet Potato Sunshine. (At other places on campus, the company does sell a wider array of cereals like Frosted Flakes and Golden Grahams.) 
 
 Still, this generation of young people may be the ones who save cereal. But it probably won’t be because they are eating it for breakfast, or because they are moved by vague claims of health, nutrition or environmental impact. Millennials are snackers, and not easily fooled by packaging or advertising, but they are as nostalgia-driven as any group of cereal eaters. 
 
 “I literally had three bowls of cereal for dinner last night,” said Christina Tosi, the New York pastry chef who founded the Milk Bar cafes and made the milk left in the bottom of a cereal bowl a culinary phenomenon by turning it into ice cream. She is a big fan of Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes. 

 
 
 (Amy Cavenaile/The Washington Post; iStock) 
 
 Few things are as painless to prepare as cereal. Making it requires little more than pouring something (a cereal of your choice) into a bowl and then pouring something else (a milk of your choice) into the same bowl. Eating it requires little more than a spoon and your mouth. The food, which Americans still buy $10 billion of annually, has thrived over the decades, at least in part, because of this very quality: its convenience. 
 
 And yet, for today's youth, cereal isn't easy enough. 
 
 On Monday, the New York Times published a story about the breakfast favorite, and the most disconcerting part was this: 
 
 Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it. 
 
 The industry, the piece explained, is struggling — sales have tumbled by almost 30 percent over the past 15 years, and the future remains uncertain. And the reasons are largely those one would expect: Many people are eating breakfast away from the home, choosing breakfast sandwiches and yogurt instead of more traditional morning staples. Many others, meanwhile, too busy to pay attention to their stomachs, are eating breakfast not at all. 
 
 But there is another thing happening, which should scare cereal makers — and, really, anyone who has a stake in this country's future — more: A large contingent of millennials are uninterested in breakfast cereal because eating it means using a bowl, and bowls don't clean themselves (or get tossed in the garbage). Bowls, kids these days groan, have to be cleaned. 
 
 [Can all-day breakfast be a McDonald’s moneymaker?] 
 
 Cereal isn't the only food suffering from a national trend toward laziness. Coffee has suffered a similar fate. Despite talk of a third wave of coffee, which values quality above all else, and basks in artisanal rather than effortless methods of preparation, Americans still covet convenience above all else. 
 
 "Convenience is the one thing that’s really changing trends these days," Howard Telford, an industry analyst at market research firm Euromonitor, said last year. 
 
 Less than 10 percent of the coffee beans Americans buy are fresh whole beans. And ground coffee isn't just outpacing whole bean coffee — it's increasing its lead, each and every year. 
 
 The rise of coffee pods, which come pre-ground and produce a cup of brown caffeinated water with the push of a button, is further evidence of the country's desire for convenience. Sales of coffee pods grew by 138,324 percent between 2004 and 2014, according to data from Euromonitor. 
 
 The popularity of delivery, meanwhile, speaks to the same tendency toward convenience. Roughly 15 percent of restaurant meals are delivered today, according to data from Technomic. But among millennials the percentage is higher: more like 20 percent. 
 
 The reason why convenience is increasingly important isn't merely because people are lazy — many actually need it. 
 
 Families are working more than ever. Almost two-thirds of households are supported by two working parents today, according to the latest government data, which is the highest reading on record. The less time families have to prepare food or sit down at restaurants, the more convenience hovers over decisions about food, especially when there is an option that is easier. Dinner, which isn't being cooked at home as often as it used to, is among the trend's many casualties. Less than 60 percent of suppers served at home were actually cooked at home last year. Only 30 years ago, the percentage was closer to 75 percent. 
 
 But there is something different about the backlash against cereal bowls, something more foundational about it that seems to speak to a greater truth about American households today. 
 
 A 2014 national survey, conducted by Braun Research, found that 82 percent of parents said they were asked to do chores as children. But when they were asked if they required their children to do chores, only 28 percent of them said yes. 
 
 And this generational shift in how families raise their kids seems to be turning even the most mundane of responsibilities, like doing the dishes, into unthinkable nuisances. 
 
 Ultimately, cereal makers will settle on a strategy for reversing the industry's downward trend. Among the likeliest routes are embracing the fact that many people are eating the food at times other than breakfast, often as a snack, channeling the food's nostalgic quality, which helped buoy the industry for years, and shifting to portable containers, which nearly half of millennials prefer, according to Mintel. 
 
 No matter the result, America's youth might have to reckon with the consequences of an age in which it's no longer worth eating a food when it means having to clean a plate. Maybe Soylent is the future after all.
– It seems millennials are waging a new generational war—and the enemy is Cap'n Crunch. The Washington Post reports the sale of breakfast cereals in the US is down nearly 30% over the past 15 years. Part of that is growing preferences for things like smoothies and protein bars, according to the New York Times. But nearly 40% of millennials in a recent survey said eating cereal was "inconvenient ... because they had to clean up after eating it." And the fact that young people aren't eating cereal because "bowls don't clean themselves" should worry both cereal companies and "anyone who has a stake in this country's future," according to the Post. "Is a generational shift in how families raise their kids turning even the most mundane of responsibilities, like doing the dishes, into unthinkable nuisances?" the Post asks, pointing to a 2014 study that found only 28% of parents make their kids do chores. But while the American work ethic may be doomed, cereal companies are predicting brighter days ahead, perhaps by cashing in on the eccentric ways millennials are eating cereal. “They have to embrace that people love the flavor and texture of cereal and the vintage nature, but it’s not about breakfast,” a pastry chef who turns cereal milk into ice cream tells the Times. For example, a bar in New York sells a $16 cocktail infused with Fruity Pebbles, while a San Francisco chef puts bacon-infused soy milk and a fried egg on top of Corn Pops. More likely, cereal companies will continue their trend toward healthy and organic—such as Kellogg's new Special K with quinoa—while marketing their products as a portable snack to the younger generation.