By DON STINE
Open for only five weeks, “Caleb’s Cookies for a Cause” in Ocean Grove has only seen its business grow, raising $800 for charity.
“I just like making cookies and thought I could start a business,” said business founder Caleb Shapiro-Mendelsohn.
“And I was bored. I like to cook and the money can go to really good causes.”
Caleb, 16, makes only one kind of cookie: chocolate chip. He sells 15 cookies for $10.
The Ocean Freeze Shaved Ice, 56 Main Ave., must like them too because
they are buying the cookies and turning them into ice cream sandwiches.
His mother, Mindy, said she couldn’t be more pleased with her son.
“I am just in awe of him,” she said. “He does the baking and I do the marketing. It’s a win-win and a good thing. He’s making money but
giving it to good causes.”
So far proceeds are being donated to the Philadelphia Basketball League,
that provides basketball programs to under-resourced communities, and to a
local diaper bank that provides diapers to families in crisis.
Shapiro said she started promoting the business through the Ocean Grove Next Door website, on Facebook, and through her synagogue in Bradley Beach.
“It totally took off,” she said.
You can fill out a cookie order form at
form.jotform.com/20200
Caleb and his mother live in Ocean Grove for the summer but then return to Philadelphia, where he will be a junior in high school. He may keep his business running here until Labor Day but may scale back to deliveries one
day a week.
Caleb, who said he is thinking about a career in sports broadcasting, said he may start cooking again when he is back in Philadelphia.
