Twins make cookie sales count

Admiral Heights resident Delphia Greeley, age 11, loves baking so much that she makes more desserts than her family can eat.

To solve the problem, her dad, Brendan, and her twin sister, Phebe, came up with the idea of starting “a cookie subscription for charity.” Called Del’s Delights, the cookie subscription started in January and has already donated more than $600 to the Maryland Food Bank.

“The idea was to give money for food by selling food,” Phebe says. “There are a lot of people who need help, and we wanted to help.”

Every other week Delphia makes the cookie dough on Thursday and bakes and packages the cookies on Friday. On Saturday, she and her sister deliver the cookies to friends and family members who have subscribed. “Usually, we have six or seven deliveries,” Phebe says. Most deliveries are to Admiral Heights neighbors, so the twins can either walk or bike.

While her sister does the baking, Phebe manages the money and writes a newsletter to go with the cookies. The newsletter includes “Cookie Stats” and “Today in History.”

Delphia has made so many chocolate chip cookies for her family that she’s memorized the recipe. With Del’s Delights, subscribers won’t get plain chocolate chip cookies. “Those are the standard,” Delphia says. “You can buy them in the store. Subscribers will always get something different, something that’s not repetitious. The one rule is that they’ll get something new.”

Her offerings have included lemon crinkles, mint chocolate chip cookies, and pink meringue cookies. In the spring she focuses on light and lemony type cookies. During the winter her creations lean more toward chocolate and peanut butter.

The whole process is fun for Delphia. “It’s fun to see people’s reaction to the cookies. It’s fun to deliver them, and it’s fun to bake them,” she says.

Subscriptions are for a dozen cookies. Cost is $15 of which $10 goes to the Maryland Food Bank. Please contact Brendan at bhgreeley@gmail.com if you would like to subscribe.

The twins are the daughters of Brendan and Dr. Beth Greeley of Admiral Heights. In addition to giving to the Maryland Food Bank, they sometimes help their grandmother, Nancy Greeley of Annapolis, make casseroles and cookies for the Light House Shelter, “a homeless prevention support center” in Annapolis.

The twins are sixth graders. Phebe attends Bates Middle School where she likes to study creative writing and drama. Delphia goes to Chesapeake Science Point Charter School, a school that integrates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) into the curriculum.