We are 11 year old twin sisters, Emma and Amy. In July 2008 we started a charity (with a little help from our Mom!) to help moms and kids at a homeless family shelter in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then we’ve expanded a lot (see the list below of everyone we help now, and visit our Programs page to learn about family portraits, kids service projects, and sending cookies to troops!).
These organizations do a great job helping the families find new homes, and we want to give the families a present on moving day. We love making homemade cookies with our Mom, and we want other kids to spend time with their moms and enjoy eating cookies in their new home. So we give each family everything they need to make their own homemade cookies, all in one of our “Bake Me Home” cloth grocery bags (because we saw a show about how plastic bags are bad for our Earth). Here’s what’s in the bag:
- A $20 Kroger Grocery Store Gift Card
- Jar of our homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
- Mixing bowl
- Mixing spoon
- Baking sheet
- Potholder
- Spatula
- Toothbrushes (Family pack of 6) and a tube of toothpaste
- Family Cookbook with recipes donated by the Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati and printed by our friends at Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church
- Colored pencils (for kids to decorate the cover of their Family Cookbook)
We have also started giving some of our Tote Bags with cookie mix, gift cards, toothbrushes, toothpaste and potholders to families visiting some of our local food pantries. We know a lot of families are having a hard time right now, and we hope baking cookies together will help cheer them up.
Here’s the list of everyone we help now:
Hamilton County, Ohio:
CAIN – Churches Active in Northside
Inter Parish Ministry
Living Hope Transitional Homes
Madisonville Education and Assistance Center
ProKids
SEM Food Pantry
YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter
YWCA Every Child Succeeds
YWCA Transitional Living Program
Clermont County, Ohio:
James Sauls Homeless Shelter
YWCA Batavia
YWCA House of Peace
Butler County, Ohio:
YWCA Dove House
Warren County, Ohio:
Abuse and Rape Crisis Shelter of Warren County
Interfaith Hospitality Network of Warren County
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Any amount of money can be a big help. Here are some examples of what we can do with your donation:
- $1.00 will buy the ink and paper for 1 family portrait
- $5.00 will buy enough brown sugar for 30 jars of cookie mix
- $50 will buy 300 toothbrushes
- $100 will buy cookie mix jars for 25 families
- $1000 will buy baking supply kits for 200 families
85¢ of every dollar we spend goes directly to our programs!
You can contact us at cookiegirls@bakemehome.com
