EAST VILLAGE — Hundreds of locally baked cookies are on their way to homesick troops in Afghanistan, thanks to New Yorkers wanting to send their sweet support to soldiers overseas.
The project, dubbed “Operation Cookie,” marks the second time the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance banded together to send tasty treats to a war zone. Members of the alliance gathered the cookies from three drop-off points around Manhattan last week and then shipped them out on Monday.
“It is about showing the servicemen overseas that we care, that we appreciate what they are doing," said organizer, recipe developer and food blogger Dana Jacobi. Along with the 120 pounds of cookies — or 1,200 individual treats — handwritten notes from those who gave were also attached to the packages.
"Operation Cookie" began in 2003, when Jacobi's friend’s son was stationed in Afghanistan and she helped ship 1,000 cookies to feed the soldier’s entire battalion of 300 people.
This year Jacobi decided to do it again.
Participants brought their home-baked goodies to locations on the Upper West and East Sides and in the East Village. Chef Barbara Sibley, a member of the Culinary Alliance, manned the East Village location at her Mexican Restaurant La Palapa on St Mark’s Place and First Avenue.
“I ended up sending 49 lbs of cookies from the East Village,” wrote Sibley in an email, estimating the batch she received amounted to more than 450 cookies.
For Sibley, her involvement in “Operation Cookie” was personal. Her brother recently returned from Iraq, where he worked with the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.
“He has seen things he can’t even speak about,” Sibley told DNAinfo last week. “It makes it more real when you have a family member over there.”
Sibley and her two children, Alex, 7, and Arielle, 3, baked dozens of cookies for the project.
While participation was enjoyed by those baking stateside, Jacobi ulitmately hopes this will mark her last "Operation."
"My first thought is, I hope there is no need for it," she said.
