Our Background

Cookies for Better started as a school club in March of 2024 at Sylvania Northview High School. From the beginning, our purpose has always been the same: to bring an accessible baking volunteer opportunity to the people of Northwest Ohio and beyond. Northview High School was the first location that we were able to bring this accessible baking opportunity to, and the over 40 volunteers that showed up for the session proved the demand for these accessible volunteer efforts. At the first session, the volunteers baked 150 cookies, with 100 being donated to the Lourdes Labre Project to support their efforts in handing out meals to those in need in the Toledo area. In December 2024, Cookies for Better became a certified 501(c)(3) organization, and Northview acted as the first of many baking locations. The baking club at Northview went on to donate 2,500 baked goods to local charities that do good in the Northwest Ohio area.

Since the Northview baking club had finished its last session for the 24-25 school year, we knew that we needed to find a location to bake over the summer, so that we could sell cookies at the Sylvania Farmers Market in order to raise funds for our cookie donation operations at Northview during the school year. That’s when we got in touch with the Sylvania Senior Center, where they were happy to allow us to utilize their kitchen for baking operations. Over our time at the summer market, we donated 30% of our profits to numerous charities of the week and raised over $1,300 for our organization. The summer market was a huge success, providing us with publicity and raising necessary funds. We seemed to be set for the Northview baking club going into the 25-26 school year, but then we were informed that the culinary room would be in use for all nine periods of the day, thus the Northview baking club would not be able to take place that school year. Moreover, we had raised money for our cookie donation baking, and did not have a place to do so, until we met back with the senior center.
 After meeting with the senior center, we were able to start a baking club there, where the seniors and people of all ages were able to come together to bake cookies to donate. The senior center baking club then went on to bake and donate hundreds of cookies to local organizations, until a troubling levy was getting close, which determined if the senior center would get vital funding for its day-to-day operations. It was for this reason that the senior center baking club had to take a pause, so that the senior center could focus on its levy. This means that yet again, we needed to find a new location for our cookie baking and donation operations.

It was around this time that we had been in touch with the Temple Shomer Emunim regarding baking cookies in their commercial kitchen. This also meant ingredient donations from the Jewish Family Services food pantry, in exchange for a portion of our donated cookies. We gladly accepted, as our ingredient costs were largely decreased, and we were able to make hundreds of cookies at a time in the temple’s large commercial kitchen. Since our first baking session in December of 2025 at the temple, we have baked over a thousand cookies there to donate to local charities, including the Jewish Family Services food pantry. This was great to have a place to bake and donate cookies for people of all ages, but volunteers were limited, as it meant going out of their way to another organization to volunteer. We remembered how we averaged over thirty volunteers at the Northview baking club, and had less than ten at the senior center and the temple. While the senior center and temple baking clubs baked a multitude of cookies, we wanted to bring the volunteer experience to more people. Thus, we knew that we had to get back into high schools and bring the volunteer experience to them.

During our time receiving fewer volunteers at the senior center and then the temple, we had been in touch with Sylvania Southview High School regarding starting a baking club there. This club would be nearly identical to the Northview baking club, where students can bake and donate cookies; however, we mentioned some key improvements. Rather than storing the ingredients at the high school, we would store our ingredients at the senior center, which allowed us to store ingredients in their pantry during our time baking at the temple while they were working on the levy. This meant that we would pre-measure the ingredients in containers at the senior center and then take them over to Southview. This allowed for increased accuracy, and the students would be able to simply mix them without measuring. Another key improvement is that Cookies for Better would provide all of the equipment, so all that would be needed from the culinary room would be the ovens and counter space. Lastly, rather than each station doing the dishes in the sink, Cookies for Better would take the ingredients back to the senior center and do the dishes in their commercial dishwasher, allowing for increased efficiency and a deeper clean. With these new improvements from the Northview baking club and excitement from Southview students, the first Southview Baking Club session kicked off in January 2026.

The first session of the Southview Baking Club was a huge success, as 30 volunteers came to bake, producing over 600 cookies. Since the success of our current baking clubs at the temple and Southview, we have had support from both organizations to continue our baking efforts there and continue making a positive impact on the community. To date, Cookies for Better has donated 5,300 baked goods to 20 organizations doing good in Northwest Ohio and has engaged over 300 unique volunteers in these efforts. At the moment, we are in touch with the senior center to get a third baking club back up and running, and we are already receiving support from Springfield High School parents to start a baking club there as well. We are also in touch with Connecting Kids to Meals regarding a potential collaborative effort to bake and donate tens of thousands of cookies, where Connecting Kids to Meals provides the kitchen space, and Cookies for Better provides the equipment and ingredients. This would also serve as a catalyst location for us to start baking clubs at Toledo schools, as it is central to the schools, and it would serve as the same system as the senior center and Southview operate. Whether it's our current operations at the temple or Southview, or our potential partnership with Connecting Kids to Meals, there is always something exciting to look forward to with Cookies for Better.