Baking for a cause: ‘Cookies for Caregivers’ movement arrives in Centre County
What started as a friendly competition between two Huntingdon men has evolved into a movement of kindness powered by cookies, and that movement has now reached Centre County.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cookies for Caregivers volunteers have delivered over 18,000 cookies to essential workers across Pennsylvania, and now chapters are popping up nationwide.
Caley Glasgow of Bellefonte previously worked with Scott McKenzie — one of the original group’s founders — and wanted to get involved when she saw him post about his efforts on Facebook. Both McKenzie and his friend Jeremy Uhrich took up baking during the beginning of the pandemic and ultimately decided to use their newfound skills for a good cause.
Glasgow created the Centre County chapter in February and it now has over 150 members.
“I think the overall mission of the group is just to let people know that we see them and we recognize the hard work that they are doing,” Glasgow said.
With a few other women, Glasgow coordinates the weekly cookie deliveries for bakers. Members can fill out a Google Form indicating whether they want to bake, suggest a delivery location or both.
Those interested in baking complete another form to select the week they’d like to contribute. A few days before the cookies are to be dropped off, the delivery coordinator makes the baker aware of any special accommodations needed for the cookies, such as avoiding nuts or other allergens.
The first delivery was to Mount Nittany Medical Center and since then the group has delivered roughly 2,000 cookies to locations including the Bellefonte Police Department, Juniper Village and Wynwood House.
“We’ve tried to diversify the different places we have delivered to,” Glasgow said. “The list is long in terms of who we want to deliver to and we’re just trying to slowly make our rounds.”
Jessica Roth of Centre Hall loves to bake, so joining Cookies for Caregivers was a no-brainer. She has made 24 dozen cookies since participating in the first delivery at the hospital.
“I’ve kind of baked a lot during the quarantine time, so I thought this was kind of a cool way to maybe start spreading out the calories to other people,” Roth said. “I’m fueling my baking habit as well as letting everybody know ‘hey, we care about you guys.’ ”
Nichole DellAntonio of Bellefonte has baked for the group for roughly one month. In that time, she’s made eight dozen cookies.
“I thought it was a great way to make what has been a really difficult year for everybody in a lot of different ways a bit better,” DellAntonio said. “It’s a way I thought I could give back safely.”
DellAntonio has also been a part of the delivery process, once helping to deliver 20 dozen cookies.
“Just being able to give a nice ‘thank you’ and a token of appreciation goes a long way,” DellAntonio said.
In a few weeks, Cookies for Caregivers will partner with the Penn State Bakery to try to deliver cookies to every post office in Centre County, as well as FedEx and UPS locations.
“We all know that those folks never get a break and they have been overloaded over the past year in terms of workload,” Glasgow said. “There’s a lot of really good people in Centre County that we’re trying to get to.”
Cookies for Caregivers always welcomes more bakers to volunteer for the cause.
“I have the benefit of being able to work from home and a lot of these people obviously don’t, and they have to go out and they have to put their lives on the line for the community,” Glasgow said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have Centre County.”
To join the group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/cfccentre.
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
