Work in Progress: Swapping Cookies for Love

[photo via here.]

Over a margarita on New Year's Eve, two of my favorite fellow baker friends and I concocted an idea. It went something like this.

We compared holiday baking stories. How many batches. New favorite recipes. Joy in delivering.

I confessed to my disappointment of another year passed without hosting a cookie swap.I vowed that next year would be THE year.

Amy said, "You can only have one if you agree to donate the cookies to the Food Pantry". She does this every Christmas -- deliveries dozens of beautifully bagged homemade holiday cookies to the help-yourself portion of the local food pantry. (What a gift!)

We shifted gears and talked about how many hungry people there are - and how sad it is that the donations all happen at once - over the holidays. What would happen in the middle of the winter when folks really needed stuff the most?

Ahah. The lightbulb went off. (There might have been another margarita by then...) Cookies in the winter. Valentine's Day. That's it -- A cookie swap for Valentine's Day. So, I'm still working on this idea (and, I know, Valentine's Day is just around the corner), but here's how I am seeing it play out.

1. Identify a date to invite friends (armed with homemade cookies) to share in tea (or something) while we bag cookies.
2. Invite friends.
3. Welcome friends (armed with cookies) at my house
4. Share in friendship and bag cookies in cellphane bags. Tie with Divine Twine.
5. Deliver to local food bank in time for Valentine's Day.
6. Feel a tad bit warmer knowing some hungry folks will get to enjoy a little extra treat this cold winter.

So, I need some help. I need a good name for this...it isn't really a cookie swap...what is it?

If I made it easy...invitation templates and all...would you host one too? Tell the truth.

And, of course, I welcome other ideas, too.