A Glimpse into: ‘A Day in the Life of Cookie Café’ by a CC Volunteer

The volunteers arrive about 8:15-8:30am - some with fruit and snacks in hand, others with
paper supplies and others with goodies picked up from CC freezer in Babson Bldg (with the
help of Chiqui in GSK, who takes in our deliveries and puts them in our freezer for us).
We put on the coffee and hot water, make up the lemonade and iced tea and pick up the
milk from Delano.

We then start unpacking packages and packages and packages of cookies, brownies and all things yummy from home for the Mids. Sometimes there are so many boxes that it takes a while to unpack, put the cookies in pans and label them and put them out to be eaten. The fruit gets washed, cut and gobbled up quicker than you or I can believe.

Throughout the day, we are re-filling pans with goodies for the Mids, as well as refreshing drink containers, taking out the garbage and empty boxes. We need to remember that we are guests of USMMA and need to leave Land Hall clean at the end of the day. Clean-up is usually finished around 5pm. All is cleaned and put away at day’s end and it looks like we were never there-except for the smiles on the faces of our Mids who enjoyed the feast of goodies sent from home with love.

There is a group of wonderful people who show up each week to make this happen. They are not infallible and mistakes happen (like when a Mid doesn’t get a package meant for him/her or mom’s cookies were put out and eaten before the Mid got to Land Hall). So any help from the families is appreciated - label the boxes - with the date the cookies are to be served and label the individual bags - with name of family sending  it and the type of cookie.

If there is a ‘special’ package for your Mid - write name of Mid on the package. Some volunteers have Mids who have graduated, others come before they head to work or come after work, as well as parents of Mids attending USMMA at the present time and may possibly be out to sea. And there are other volunteers that are ‘behind the scenes’ of Cookie Café that manage to pull it all together with sponsors, dates, fielding questions and trying to answer them all (from what kind of cookies and how many are needed, to how to pack them so they arrive unbroken). Sometimes, the hardest ‘job’ is trying to get enough sponsors. When there are no sponsors, the volunteers that are in Land Hall will bake at home and on site to make sure the Mids have enough. Our purpose is to brighten the day of our Mids, even if it is only for one day a week.

But you’ll hear the Mids say, that one day will ‘make their week.’ The Mids welcome the hugs and conversation of the volunteers and just the peace that Cookie Café offers them. And
we love that we can help them get through another week at Kings Point.