We at Cookie Central believe no child in America should go hungry. Join us in supporting Share Our Strength's efforts to ensure children at risk of hunger have access to the nutritious food they need to live, learn, and thrive.
Ah, Football
As you can see, nothing too glamorous. This was, however, the absolute most fun I've ever had at a bake sale! It may have been because it was low-key, or maybe it was the support of an RV full of people...or it could have been the cold beer... Either way, this -our final bake sale for 2011- was awesome.
Hitting The Pavement
The table didn't last but 5 minutes. The RV lot stayed pretty barren on our end, so we took the show on the road and hustled for No Kid Hungry. I am a genius for bringing baskets with handles and having this guy as my right hand man for the night was a HUGE plus! Many thanks to Dave for a job well done and really embracing the No Kid Hungry Message!!
I want to note, if strength.org saw a huge spike in hits between the hours of 6-8, it is most likely because I had to show practically everyone I spoke with that:
Yes, I am for real
Yes, all of the money will help feed hungry kids
...YES, there ARE hungry kids
and
Yes, I can back that up!
Cheers to the creation of the Smart Phone
Swag In The Stadium
We brought it! Whether or not we made it on the tube is another story... Either way, Team No Kid Hungry made it's presence known inside and out of Gillette and hopefully we reached even just a handful of people.
Pick Of The Night
At every bake sale I always come across that one person. Someone who really listens and will leave to make a difference. A chance encounter, during a brief altercation with a man who had been bitten by a camel (blog for another day) was how I met Chad. Not enough good things I can say about the conversation we had, but let's leave it at - this guy gets it! Chad, if you happen across this blog, I hope you make it to Taste of the Nation Boston and can't wait to introduce you to the hubby!
~*~
To everyone who has supported Cookie Central's 2011 Great American Bake Sale campaign, Thank You!! It has been a phenomenal year from beginning to end and we look forward to doing it all over in 2012. Please check in over the next few months as we blog our way to Taste of the Nation Boston as the official Hunger Message Chair!
Get In The "KNOW"
Allow me to divert your attention to THIS BLOG POST written by Jeffrey Wood from Tyson Foods. That's right folks this little cookie lady is a Tyson Foods Hunger All-Star and all of us here at Cookie Central are thrilled! Since 2000 Tyson Foods has been involved with the fight against hunger. They are a proud supporter of Share Our Strength, Lift Up America, Feeding America, and Food Research and Action Center. They strive to educate people across our nation about hunger in their communities and motivate them to get involved in hunger relief with their newly released KNOW Hunger campaign. Over the course of just more than a decade, they have donated more than 78 million pounds of protein, "enough protein to have served one meal to every American citizen". I'll break for a moment to give you all time to stand and applaud.
With a little luck -and quite a bit of strong-arming- we have snatched up 2 tickets to The Patriots game for November 21st, leaving me incredibly happy to announce our Great American Bake Sale at Gillette Stadium is back ON baby!
PLEASE NOTE: We will no longer be in P2. We will be rolling in style and will be parking in the lot where the.....wait for it..... RVs park (ha ha). I would like to refrain from making any less than politically correct statements, but do want to throw out there - if anyone local has a couple of pink plastic flamingos and a blow-up kiddie pool we can borrow, I will be eternally grateful. We will also be experimenting with a suggestion we came across on The Bake Sale Neighborhood. FREE COOKIES. That's right, we will be giving it all away for the doughnut (no pun intended), with donations graciously accepted of course. We will also be bringing our No Kid Hungry swag to the seats, so keep an eye out for us behind the goalpost in the north end zone. GO PATS
No, I'm just kidding. The hubby and I are, however, hopping on the committee for Taste of the Nation Boston 2012! Curious who the big dog is? Why, non other than Eve Lee who hosts one of the nations most successful Great American Bake Sales, was nominated for the GABS Community Leadership Award (sorry Eve, better luck next year :P) and has been volunteering for Taste of the Nation for several years now. I welcome you all to follow along as I tweet the bag out of this bad Larry (as my husband would so eloquently put it).
Taste of the Nation is one of Share Our Strength's 5 campaigns. This culinary benefit designed to raise awareness and funds for the fight against childhood hunger is THE go-to place for food lovers! Taste events are hosted all across the country and you can check to see if there's one near you HERE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Share Your Holiday Season With Us
*$10 Will Be Donated For Every Holiday Basket We Sell*
This past weekend we closed up shop for a few days for Share Our Strength's Conference of Leaders and Taste of the Nation Baltimore. It was a weekend full of inspiration, education and food, glorious food!
Taste of the Nation Baltimore
For those of you who read our post about Taste of the Nation Boston, you very well know The Cookie Lady is all about gorging...and gorge I did! Of the 20-some participating restaurants, I spent the most time with Wit & Wisdom where I ate enough maple custard with caramel sauce and vanilla crumble to put the entire room into a food coma. My hubby and I mixed and mingled with the incredible people like famed chef Timothy Cipriano, Eve Lee, host of the Great American Bake Sale at Philips Healthcare, Bill Wooldridge one of Share Our Strength's Cutting Edge Scholarship Program participants and many, many more.
What an absolutely GREAT idea! People could hop in the booth, snap a couple pictures and bring home a No Kid Hungry keepsake.
The pictures were also projected on two large screens during the
event...some information I could have used before hoping into the booth
:P.
Conference of Leaders
This was a weekend full of such inspiration, such education and such passionate people, but I realize my attempt at writing about the entire conference in an itty bitty little blog post would be feeble at best. That said, I would like to hilghlight two of my favorite portions - Cooking Matters and the Getting Personal With No Kind Hungry session.
Cooking Matters - Share Our Strength's food education course that teaches families, teens and individuals how to prepare healthy, delicious food on a limited budget - staff and volunteers were prominent throughout the entire conference. To know that Share Our Strength offers a program to help parents and children really work with what they get (which, too often, is very little) is fantastic. There was a lot of discussion about nutrition and food insecurity and this is a phenomenal campaign that helps families face challenges they may encounter. I especially love that Cooking Matters is rocking it out up here in the northeast! Check out the Cooking Matters home page for links to downloadable tool kits, finding a program near you and getting involved.
One of my favorite sessions, Getting Personal With No Kid Hungry, was interactive! Led by Amy Crowell - Director of Great American Bake Sale & Grassroots Fundraising, this session gave me the opportunity to meet Aleta Greer, woman behind Coins For Kids, hear from Jackie Price who started hosting bake sales at 14 and has since raised over $10,000(WOW!), and brainstorm with other session participants on how to expand, better and evolve Great American Bake Sale. GABS is a campaign that, obviously, I love! To have the chance to hear other participants feedback was awesome and there is much that I will be taking away and utilizing in my 2012 campaign.
5 Fun Off Topic Facts About My Weekend: written by me :)
Occupy Baltimore has approximately 15 tents
If you stay at Days Inn Inner Harbor you get a bag of microwave popcorn...and a microwave
If you take the escalators down from the ballroom in Renaissance
Inner Harbor, you will not be able to get back up without walking around
Fred got pulled into the airport security box on the way home
We were on the same plane as Billy Shore (heading to Baltimore) and Jason Santos (heading home)
Flash Mob at Conference of Leaders
Just another reason to love Jessica Bomberg - Senior Coordinator of Great American Bake Sale
WOOOOOO!!!
I am honored and humbled to receive Share Our Strength's 2011 Great American Bake Sale Leadership Award! Please find Share Our Strength's press release with the names of all 17 award winners HERE
Again, WOOOO!!!
Very Special Thank Yous To: Our Campaign Sponsor - BJ's Wholesale Club of Haverhill, MA The Ladies of Great American Bake Sale - Amy Crowell, Jessica Bomberg and Sylvia Vidal Twitter Peeps That Really Helped Spread The Word - Ty Sullivan, John Scroggins, Amanda Hite, Joel Owens, Jamie L. Simon, and Steff Childs Facebook Peeps That Did So Too - Carolyn Kolowsky, Brian Gardner, Monte Tareski & Steve Presley, Herbert Chao The Friends of Kevin Radio Show - Especially Kevin Willet My Little Girls - Jazmin & Mia My Parents- Who show up at every event My AWESOME Husband - who I now owe $10
Links for everyone who participated in 2010 & 2011 are located in the left sidebar. THANK YOU!
My daughter's 10th birthday is October 13th and now that she's a little older, she has decided to ask for one big present rather than one big party. Wondering what she asked for? A Kindle of all things! And oddly enough, this is exactly the prize for Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale's Take Your Best Shot Contest!!
**During the month of October, we will donate your entire membership fee to Share Our Strength to support their efforts to fight childhood hunger in America*
It is great customers like you that keep Cookie Central running! As a
way to give back we now offer The Fat Baker Club, featuring free
monthly giveaways, discounts on all your orders and a complimentary gift
basket when you sign up. Check out the Fat Baker Club Blog to learn more.
***Yearly Membership Includes:
5% off All Your Orders For The Entire Year
One Compilmentary Gift Basket
(includes chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and oatmeal raisin)
Automatic Entry Into Our Monthly Giveaways
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Share Your Holiday Basket
If
your like me, you've alerady started your holiday shopping, possibly
having some of the presents wrapped and ready to go. So for all you
early birds, here's a preview of what basket specials we will have
available for 2011. What makes these basket that much more special, is
that each is attached with a Share Our Strenght holiday gift tag,
letting your friends family and client know that you too are making a
difference. Wth each basket sold, a $10.00 donation will be made by
Cookie Central to Share Our Strength and support their efforts to fight
childhood hunger in America.
Month's of planning and within a day our 1st Annual Great American Golf Tournament is over. For all of you out there dancing to the sun gods, many thanks! We were graced with a gorgeous 80 degree day with lots of sun and the day's events from registration to saying farewell went off without a hitch. Together we raised about $3,900! (final total to be determined by the silent auction results).
Thank You To All Our Wonderful Players
Methuen Fire
Comprised solely of friends and co-workers, the field of players for our tourney was just outstanding. It was our goal to create an event that people would enjoy and look forward to each year. To see so many supporters join us for our first ever Great American Golf Tournament was heartwarming and motivation to revisit the event in 2012...which is already in the works!
The lovely Mandy!
To Our Wonderful Volunteers Thank You!
We could not have done it without you!! A big fat thank you to Mandy and Abbey who did an unbelievable job throughout the whole tournament, Lisa of LI Designs who took most of our pictures and my mom Sharon who helped get things rolling at registration.
I'd also like to send a very warm thank you to Dennis McCarthy of Lazarus House Ministries who, even though was not on the volunteer roster, showed up (twice) to donate his time. What incredible support!
The Incredible Fred
To My Wonderful Husband Fred
Like I mentioned on The Friends of Kevin Radio Show, "It always seems to start with Fred..." and without a doubt, this golf tournament was all Fred. He got the golfers, ran the games, he made the speech at the reception, heck* he even came up with the idea! To have him hop on the bake sale band wagon with me and be so excited about doing it all over again next year is phenomenal. We have truly become a family fundraising for No Kid Hungry...and that's just plain awesome.
To Our Wonderful Sponsors, Vendors & Donators
1st Hole
KBK Sports who hosted the silent auction and whose founder is the VP of The Lowell Spinners.
Blast Mixer Smoothies, Lemonade and Skinny Alternative Energy Drinks for hosting a table at the registration area and making a charitable contribution to our tourney.
Awesome, awesome people! I showed up well before I was expected (a habit of mine) and was greetedby the most exceptional staff. From the help with set up to coordinating the tournament, these guys were top notch. We heard from just about every golfer that the course looked incredible and played well. Merrimack Valley Golf Club
Incredible Food From Simply Elegant Catering!
Breakfast's Coffee & Pastry Table
Simply Elegant Catering provided us with the most incredible guy -Andrew- to manage the meals served at our tournament. He bent over backwards for us and was a great addition to the tournament staff for the day. Sam and Michele were very accommodating and really made a huge impact on the success of the day. Also, they donated all the left over food from the tournament to Lazarus House Ministries' emergency shelter.
Other Fun From The Day
1, 2, 3...Shoot!
Carts were driving around the course offering samples of wine, scotch and tequila. I know, I know- It sounds like a bad idea, but the golfers loved it!
Posing for the camera
Bobby (right) and my wonderful husband Fred (left)
No, we're not kidding. This guy actually shot the worm....
The Putt Off
Our 11 Finalists
The Peanut Gallery! Or should I say hecklers.
Dennis Gillespie, who didn't make the $5K putt (sorry Dennis!)
Ah, Football 
Hitting The Pavement
