What holiday is complete without a fresh-baked treat, made with love from a friend or family member? Allrecipes.com has created "Cookies Across America", a program designed to mobilize Allrecipes' passionate community of more than 20 million home cooks to decorate and donate cookies this holiday season. This week, we join Drop in and Decorate, a non-profit dedicated to providing joy and hope with decorated cookie donations.
Cookie lovers unite! Whether it's baking and sharing cookies with the needy or donating cookie ingredients to a food bank, you can make a difference in your community this holiday!
Cookies Across America is a program created to mobilize Allrecipes' passionate community of more than 20 million home cooks to decorate and donate cookies through a partnership with Crisco and "Drop In & Decorate", a non-profit dedicated to providing joy and hope with decorated cookie donations. The program is focused on spreading the sweet joy of cookies to those in need this holiday season; with a collection of more than 5,000 cookie recipes and a live how-to cookie webcast, Allrecipes is making sharing easy and fun.
According to a recent survey from Allrecipes, 84 percent of home cooks plan to bake cookies this holiday season, and 76 percent feel it's important for kids to have holiday memories such as baking holiday cookies.
"In December, cookie recipe views surge 400 percent, proving that cookies play an integral role in family holiday traditions," said Lisa Sharples, president of Allrecipes. "We believe it's important to spread holiday cheer with the gift of food to those less fortunate. Our partnership with Crisco and Drop In & Decorate reminds us how, something as simple as a cookie, can make a huge impact in someone's life."
To learn more, add Cookies Across America as a cook you like on Allrecipes.com.
Anyone can host a Drop In & Decorate Party - simply bake some cookies, invite friends or family (or even neighbors or co-workers) to stop in and help decorate, and then donate the cookies to a local food pantry, emergency shelter, senior center, lunch program, or other community agency. People can also donate cooking or baking supplies to a local food pantry or community agency.
To date, Drop In & Decorate events have taken place in 33 states as well as in Canada, Germany, India, Japan, and the Dominican Republic - and more than 20,000 cookies have found their way to 116 different social-service agencies.
"We are excited to reach even more people in need this holiday season, as this partnership with Allrecipes and Crisco connects us to such a robust and active cooking community," says Lydia Walshin, founder of Drop In & Decorate. "After all, these are more than cookies. They're an individual gift. They're a piece of someone's heart and soul. They reflect someone's very best intentions."
For more information on how to host a Drop in and Decorate event, visit http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cookies-Across-America.
Christmas Cookie Recipe Collection
Decorated sugar cookies, ginersnaps, cookie ornaments, and pizzelles - you'll love these five-star recipes.
Drop in and Decorate:
Completing the circle with a cookie donation to New York City domestic violence agency
Kids, Cookies, and Sharing
A Drop In and Decorate Event
Christmas Baking
It's time for all sugar plum fairies to break out the holiday aprons.
"Cookies are made of butter and love."
~ Norwegian Proverb
When I first learned of our Cookies Across America campaign, I was excited. When we decided to "drop in" on not one, but three separate Drop In & Decorate events, I was ebullient! Our first stop was at Spacecraft, a great store in Brooklyn, NY that hosts craft classes. Ten to fifteen friends stopped in to join Paula Astorga and Jaime Newman and try their hand at decorating cookies. Some of these were clearly cookie stylists, whipping out some fantastic designs. By the time we were done, we had finished nearly 200 cookies that were decorated and drying, ready to take to the families at the Center Against Domestic Violence of New York which provides emergency shelter and support services to victims of domestic abuse.
Our next drop in was at Bonita Springs Middle School, Florida. Seven hundred cookies, gallons of frosting, thousands of sprinkles, and more than 25 students and staff combined volunteered to decorate cookies and help others during the holiday season. Teachers first made the sugar cookies and brought them to school where the dedicated decorators added royal frosting in fall colors and designs. The cookies were given to the Bonita Springs Assistance Office to help families in need in the community. "Our goal was 500 cookies, but our amazing staff at Bonita Springs Middle School went above and beyond anything I could have imagined with over 700 cookies," said teacher and organizer Stacy Bass. "It was a great event and I am looking forward to our next Drop In & Decorate."
My final "drop in" was in San Rafael, California at the home of Michelle Stern, mom, author and owner of a certified-green company offering cooking classes for kids, who has hosted several Drop In & Decorate events of her own. Her house was filled with a gaggle of kids, all arriving with cookies in hand. After breaking everybody up into two groups (and two tables), we got to work! The kids had a blast! The cookies were donated to Homeward Bound of Marin, who delivered them to needy families, on Thanksgiving Day. Thanks again to Jaime, Paula, Stacy, and Michelle for making a difference in your communities through the simple act of sharing sweet, delicious, beautiful cookies with those in need – you ladies are incredible!
We hope the rest of you will join Allrecipes.com and Drop In & Decorate by sharing and hosting an event of your own.
Christmas Cookie Recipe Collection
Decorated sugar cookies, ginersnaps, cookie ornaments, and pizzelles - you'll love these five-star recipes.
Christmas Baking
It's time for all sugar plum fairies to break out the holiday aprons.
Drop in and Decorate:
Completing the circle with a cookie donation to New York City domestic violence agency
Kids, Cookies, and Sharing
A Drop In and Decorate Event
Center Against Domestic Violence
The Center Against Domestic Violence has led the fight to end domestic violence for over 30 years. We are here to offer safety, education, prevention, and hope for survivors of abuse.
Spacecraft
A unique, carefully selected variety of hard-to-find supplies, books, materials and crafting kits.
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