Drop In & Decorate cookies for donation: have fun, do good, make someone's holidays happy

 

“Thank you for the extraordinarily beautiful holiday cookies that you prepared and delivered to the Crossroads Rhode Island Family Center. For the fourth year in a row, your group has brightened the holidays for homeless families who are unable to provide their children with the wonderful treats that make the winter holidays so special and memorable.” Crossroads Rhode Island family emergency shelter, Providence

If you've been reading The Perfect Pantry for a while, you might remember the story about Drop In & Decorate. Way back in 2002, my friend Candy and I read an article, or maybe saw a television show, about Martha Stewart's beautiful flooded-icing cookies. Like Martha herself, the cookies looked elegant. Composed. Perfect.

Candy, an artist, baker, and ever the optimist, said, "We can do that."

Ever the bake-o-phobe, I replied with absolute certainty, "No, we can't."

How we moved from no to yes, from our first attempts at decorating a few batches of cookies in my kitchen to a nonprofit organization about to zoom past the 10,000 cookies donated mark, is a great story, one I've already shared with you.

The idea behind Drop In & Decorate is simple: bake some cookies; gather a group of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, your worship group or book group to decorate the cookies together; donate the cookies to a nonprofit agency serving basic human needs in your own community.

It’s a simple idea in a complicated world, something anyone can do.

Something you can do.

How about hosting or organizing your own Drop In & Decorate® event during the holiday season, with your friends, your kids, your co-workers, your moms' group, faith group or book group?  There's lots of help available on the web site, where you can download a free guide that tells you everything you need to know.

Pillsbury and Wilton would like to help, too.

Pillsbury has donated 50 VIP coupons, worth $3.00 each, off any Pillsbury product-- including sugar cookie mix, icing and flour -- to be distributed, first come, first served, while supply lasts, to anyone who plans to host a Drop In & Decorate cookies-for-donation party.

Wilton has donated some Comfort Grip cookie cutters, available to hosts while supply lasts.

(Visit Drop In & Decorate's site for information about how to get coupons and cookie cutters.)

December 4 is National Cookie Day, and someone, somewhere, some time in the next few weeks, or maybe on that very day, will decorate the 10,000th cookie for donation at a Drop In & Decorate® party to benefit a nonprofit agency helping people in need in their own community.

Will it be you?

Read what others are saying about Drop In & Decorate:
Holiday project idea: Drop In & Decorate (Sarah's Cucina Bella)
World Series Cookies for Drop In & Decorate (In Good Taste)
Drop In & Decorate: Bake, Decorate and Donate Cookies (Food Blogga)
Drop In & Decorate! (La Mia Cucina)
A Sweet Idea and a Sweet Snack (One Hot Stove)
Drop In & Decorate: 10,000 Cookies and 10,000 Smiles (Culinary Types)
Drop In & Decorate: Have Fun, Do Good (In the Kitchen and On the Road with Dorie)
Cause and effect (Hedonia)
Drop In & Decorate: 10,000 cookies = 10,000 smiles (Cora Cooks)
Drop In & Decorate (Savor the Thyme)
Culinary art with a touch of service (DinnerCakes)
Drop In & Decorate (Andrea Meyers)
Get free cookie mix for a Drop In & Decorate party (Chew on That)
Cookies make people happy (What's Cooking Blog)
Drop In & Decorate: Bake, Decorate and Donate Cookies (Young Mothers Serving Others)
Cookies for a Cause: Drop In & Decorate (Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks)
Cookies for Giving: Works for Me Wednesday (Bake at 350)
Drop In & Decorate {Cookies=Smiles} (Tidy Mom)
Drop In & Decorate This Holiday Season (InnCuisine)
Who will decorate the 10,000th cookie? (The Inadvertent Gardener)
Go on, make my day! (Grow. Cook. Eat.)
Will yours be the 10,000th cookie? (Fresh Eyes)
Drop In & Decorate for the holidays (Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy)
Drop In & Decorate (The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz)
Drop In & Decorate (No Fear Entertaining)
Drop In & Decorate (Thyme for Cooking, The Blog)
Drop In & Decorate -- Cookies for Donation (A Year of Slow Cooking)

Special thanks to Kalyn's Kitchen, Tartelette and Last Night's Dinner.

Comments

[Julia]

Drop in & Decorate is such a great event. I look forward to it every year! And how wonderful that you've expanded beyond the December holidays into Mother's day too. You bring so much light!

[Kalyn]

Such a lovely idea. You should be very proud of all the people you've brought some pleasure to with this worthwhile project.

[Jenna]

We just got permission to host a bake sale at work. To attract a crowd &, we hope, create a lively & fun atmosphere, we're putting together a cookie decorating table.

The proceeds and resulting decorated cookies are going to Casa De Madres, which works to break the cycle of domestic violence, from emergency shelter to vocational training.

Thanks for inspiring us and for publicizing the important work of DI&D.

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

Julia, Kalyn: Thanks for your support and enthusiasm.

Jenna, fantastic! Please email to me with more details and let me know how I can help.

[Andrea Meyers]

You've done a wonderful thing in creating Drop In & Decorate. I'm sure the sight of all the cookies you donate brings a smile to many faces and hearts.

[michelle]

I wanted to do this last year and never got to it. No more procrastinating!

I think I'm going to try to organize a little drop in and decorate party for my November girl's day get together. Off to research possible orgs to donate to so that my girls can cast their votes!