For the past eight years, members and friends of Lafayette Park Church, St. Louis, have delivered homemade cookies at Christmastime to people with HIV/AIDS and their families. Richard Glodo, AIDS ministry chairman, says the project started when volunteers delivered about 100 dozen Christmas cookies to Food Outreach, an organization that provides pre- cooked meals and other nutritional supplements to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Three years ago, the church "Cookie Bakers," delivered about 300 dozen cookies to Food Outreach. Since then, the organization has limited the number to 110 dozen, but donors keep upping their contributions. In 1997, about 400 dozen were delivered and last year 450 dozen.

Glodo says the ministry continues to grow because it's a tribute by friends and church members to the families of those in the congregation who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

December 1, 1999

Produced by Interpreter, the official program magazine of The United Methodist Church.