Suffolk News-Herald

When he’s out selling cookies for the Suffolk YMCA Leader’s Club over the next few weeks, Kris Jones knows exactly who he plans to target.

&uot;I’m going to go sell to my neighbors who have little kids,&uot; explains the King’s Fork Middle School student. &uot;You know how kids are with cookies – they always like cookies, especially chocolate chip!&uot;

Youths aren’t the only fans of Classic Cookies’ chocolate chip seasoning, Nedra Meloni, the Lynchburg-based company’s sales representative, told the rest of the Club Monday night at the YMCA.

&uot;Chocolate chip is our most popular flavor,&uot; she said to the group of teenagers that meets once a month at the center to plan its volunteer work. The cookie-selling fundraiser is intended to raise money for a tentative Busch Gardens trip.

Asides from the chocolate chip cookies, Classic also offers oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter, cinnamon snickers, and other snack time fare. Offerings will be available in both two- and three-pound tubs (both cost $12), which can produce 96 and 64 cookies each.

&uot;They’ll be frozen when you get them (in eight to 10 days),&uot; Meloni said. &uot;Put as many as you can into your freezer, and if you run out of space there, the tubs can stay in your refrigerator for up to three months. Each tub has the best ingredients that a cookie can have.

&uot;When you’re selling,&uot; she continued, &uot;make sure that you tell people that, because you’re a non-profit organization, they can write it off on their taxes. It’s a contribution.

&uot;Can you smell them?&uot; she asked the group of youngsters, now made eager to chow down by the aroma of a new batch of cookies, one that Meloni had fixed up in a small, portable oven. &uot;When they’re in the tub, they’re already made; you just scoop them out and cook them in about 12 minutes.&uot; She passed a basket of cookies around the group, allowing the future salespeople to sample their own product.

If leader Samantha Ketcham has her way, it won’t be the last time she gets to snack on the Classics. &uot;My mom usually bakes cookies all winter,&uot; she says. &uot;She gives them to everyone we know; friends, neighbors, teachers, everyone. But she always makes a few batches for me!&uot;

For more information on the cookie-selling program or the Leader’s Club, please contact Anna Stevens at the Suffolk YMCA at 934-9622.