The cookie connection

The appeal of the cookie is timeless. Derived from the German for "little cake," these hand-held delights come in a variety of shapes and styles and always aim to please.

Joan Reitz, purchasing manager for nutritional development svcs. at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is one smart "cookie" when it comes to feeding the approx. 275,000 children and young adults who are participating in this summer's federally funded feeding program.

New and different: "I was looking for something new, different and fun for the snack portion of the summer meals. We chose to go with J&J Snack Foods' Icee and Star Spangled cookies. They come pre-packaged, ready to eat. And most important, the cookies meet federal guidelines as a bread equivalent. So instead of duplicating the bread portion of the meal at lunch, I'm able to offer foods from other groups." The cookies are served with a juice, milk or yogurt," she says.

Participants come from various neighborhood groups, such as day camps, YMCAs, Salvation Army programs, etc. The thousands of snacks and lunches are shipped from a central warehouse. Lunches are packed separately from the cookies, according to Reitz, in "chicken boxes." The cookies are delivered as is.

The whole operation is a huge endeavor, explains Reitz. "None of our schools has the facilities to prepare foods from scratch—even during the regular school year meals are pre-plated and shipped. During the eleven summer weeks that the program is in effect, college students and workers from the Elwyn Institute (an organization that provides rehabilitation and employment to brain-injured individuals) get the food ready for shipment. Our drivers cover a 60-mile radius for meal drop-offs," she says.

Red, white and blue: The blue and raspberry colored cookies come in three shapes: a cup, the Icee logo and a bear. The Star Spangled cookies are vanilla-flavored, star-shaped cookies, which come in patriotic red, white and blue. "The patriotic appeal makes it the perfect summer cookie. I knew that most young people were already familiar with the Icee logo from the frozen beverage of the same name," she explains.

Can colleges court prospective students with cookies? Yes, says Pete Wallin, chef and production mgr. of dining svcs. at Ashland (OH) Univ.—proving that the craving for cookies stays with us as we move into adulthood. "We use the baked-from-scratch cookies as both a marketing and recruitment tool for the university. We go through 100 to 500 a week, depending on the occasion or event. And during peak production times, the cookies are shipped by the thousands. We are known for this cookie," says Wallin. "It's a 4-in. chocolate chip, which is baked and packaged by staff. It's called the AU (Ashland Univ.) cookie."

According to Wallin: "Each cookie is baked from scratch and individually wrapped by hand in a plastic sleeve. The AU has large chocolate-chip chunks, with a home-made look and taste."

The secret ingredients: The recipe is a secret; and the cookie can't be bought, he says. "It's a free cookie in that it is used only as a promotional tool. We don't sell it." Raw cost without labor is in the 90¢ range," says Wallin.

AU cookies are mailed to students while they are still in high school as recruitment incentives. "Students are given cookies when they arrive as freshmen; and students are given cookies when they depart as seniors." It's a tradition, explains Wallin, that has been going on for approx. 12 years. And it's proved to be a successful one for the school. "We get nothing but positive feedback from it."

And in addition to the AU cookies, there's a selection of cookie choices on the regular dining hall menu. "Our from-scratch signature cookies include Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk; Butterfinger, made with sugar cookie dough and Butterfinger candy bits; and Minnesota Muncher, made with sugar cookie dough, toffee candy, two types of chocolate chips—semi-sweet and milk—and walnuts. All the cookies have a soft and chewy texture," he says.

Cookie-dough rising: The dining room has an "all you can eat" set-up so "students could have a dinner of cookies if they wanted to," jokes Wallin. Staff prepare roughly 2,500 meals and approx. 300 to 500 cookies—sometimes more—a day. And Wallin offers this bit of insight on the popularity of the cookie: "Each year I see that cookies are becoming more and more popular. I'm not sure why. But obvious reasons are that cookies are tasty and easy to eat and to grab on the go."

Foodservice dir. Brenda Seidlitz, RD, at the Ridgewood Court long-term care facility in Attleboro, MA, feeds a population whose average age is 85. The residents know what they like at this point in their lives—especially when it comes to food. And, yes, cookies are still a favorite daily item with this geriatric population.

"We use Rich's pre-formed cookie dough. It's not only pre-formed, it's pre-flavored, too. The cookies are baked off till they are still soft—not crisp."

The daily 360: Cookies are used as both a dessert item with meals and as an afternoon snack. Flavors include chocolate chip, M&M's chocolate chip and oatmeal. "We don't serve peanut butter–based cookies here since too many patients are allergic to peanuts. We also use shelf-ready items, like Keebler's oatmeal cookies and generic sugar cookies. We go through about 360 cookies daily."

Labor and cost are the two reasons the staff doesn't bake from scratch at the facility, says Seidlitz. The bake-off cookies are 1 oz. in size—not too big—and each resident gets two cookies as a dessert.

A 'monster' on the menu: Brenda Buchholz, cafeteria mgr. at Overton (NE) School, says she has a "chocoholic" staff who would like nothing better than to see something chocolate as a daily menu choice. "We're noted for making a scrumptious Monster Cookie, which consists of oatmeal, flour, chunks of chocolate chips and M&M's."

Approx. 270 students in grades K-12 participate at lunch. The cookie is served as a dessert item with the lunch entree and also sells as an a la carte item during the after-school program. "Cost is 50¢, with a 36¢ food cost," says Buchholz.