Boston bakers swapped thousands of cookies and raised money so kids can eat

More than 500 people came to Boston Common on October 18 with cookies to trade, The Christian Science Monitor reported on October 21, 2026. Flour Bakery founder Joanne Chang, whose new book is "The Joy of Cookies," asked bakers to bring four dozen. The paper's account of the morning put the spread at 27,000 cookies. When a group was called, each person had five minutes to fill a box. The tables ran from chocolate chip cookies to ube, black sesame, and garam masala. Chang said the event raised more than $25,000 for No Kid Hungry.

She told the Monitor that cookies are a simple way to mark joy, and that connecting with other people is how she hopes to make things a little sweeter. High school student Bella Dubrovsky brought frosted sugar cookies from a family holiday recipe and said she wants her own bakery someday. People who could not wait sat on the grass and compared notes. The money is what the tickets raised that morning. It is not a figure for every meal No Kid Hungry will serve.