The classic combination makes for a tasty snack, and an Alliance church found a creative way to use milk and cookies to assist those in need.
Abiding Savior Lutheran Church hosts an annual cookie sale that raises money to purchase gallons of milk for the Alliance Community Pantry. This year, the church dropped off 221 gallons — a record number of donations.
Members of the congregation supply cookies for the sale, which occurs every August.
“It’s just people’s generosity and willingness to help,” said church secretary Jackie Wellman.
“We opened it up to suggestions from congregation members and so forth. One of our young people at the time, Matthew Eversdyke, he was in sixth grade, so he would have been about 12 years old. He said we should have a cookie sale and give the money to the food pantry,” Wellman explained.
She knew the agency needed milk, so she pitched the idea that Abiding Savior use the funds from the cookie sale to buy gallons of milk for the pantry. Wellman chose to hold the sale in August because some local area schools were not providing summer lunches at the time.
“If families came in (to the pantry) to get food for school-age children, there would be milk available,” she said.
The first year, Wellman used the money collected to purchase roughly 30 gallons. Since then, the project has continued to grow. Fourteen bakers participated in this year’s sale, donating 95 dozen cookies.
“We’ve got some really good bakers in the church. We’ve had a couple people who’ve brought in, like, 14 dozen cookies,” Wellman said. “They like to bake, and so you spend one afternoon baking, and that’s all you have to do.”
This year, the church made $317 on the day of the sale. The number of gallons purchased each year varies based on the price of milk.
“We only charge $3 a dozen. A lot of times, people will buy three dozen and that’s $9. They’ll five me a $10 and say ‘Keep the change,'” Wellman said.
‘It just kind of grew beyond myself’
Eversdyke, who is now a freshman music education major at University of Mount Union, said he never imagined the project would become an annual event. Response to the idea has been highly supportive of the idea. Although Eversdyke hasn’t been able to assist with the project in recent years, he said it feels good knowing that an idea he helped initiate has created a lasting effect on the community.
“I know that I had a small part in it, and it just kind of grew beyond myself,” he said.
Wellman credits the generosity of the members of the church to the sale’s success.
“It’s just the congregation,” she said. “We took Matthew’s idea and my suggestion, added to it and have just gone with it.”
