Cookie fundraiser brings smiles at Dallas hospital

SEPTEMBER 2—At the 550-bed Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, the foodservice team, which is managed by Sodexo, raised money through cookie sales to bring smiles to patients’ faces.

During November and December 2009, cookies were sold in six of the hospital’s retail locations with the proceeds going to purchase a Starlight Fun Center, a mobile entertainment unit that includes a flat-screen television, a Nintendo Wii, DVD player and hard drive loaded with 30 games.

The fun center is one way the Starlight Children’s Foundation Texas helps children with a serious medical condition and their families cope during an illness.

“There are a lot of sick kids who get bored in the hospital,” said Marty White, foodservice director with Sodexo at the hospital. “We had other ideas than selling cookies to raise money, but they would take too much time. When you buy a ‘guilty’ treat for you, you are buying a treat for a kid.”

In addition to selling the cookies, Sodexo teamed up with Brioche Dorée Café & Bakery, a quick-service restaurant that has a location in the new Children’s Tower food court, to raise money for the Fun Center.

Five thousand dollars was raised, which purchased one Fun Center.

“Once kids get their hand on a Fun Center, the whole hospital experience is changed,” Brioche Dorée’s vice president Morell Marean said in a press release.