'Eating a cookie, you're not sad': How a Placer Co. business owner's idea took off

Donna Webb's cookies have turned into much more than the snack she thought they'd be. The owner of Donna's Delights has been baking gluten-free, protein-infused goods for about 20 years, but when Webb and the rest of the state were ordered to stay at home to help guard against the spread of the coronavirus, she saw an opportunity to help "the front liners" – doctors, nurses, retailers. The cookies were already available at stores and other businesses in Auburn, Roseville, Granite Bay and Folsom. She took cookies to Kaiser and Sutter hospitals in Roseville, and to THE STUDIO Martial Arts & Fitness, where nurses and doctors train. "So I had a connection," Webb said. Vendors caught word and offered to donate, "and I baked with the donations," she said. A flier was attached to each box of cookies, thanking recipients "for your hard work and effort." Word of mouth contributed. "Good Day Sacramento" and ABC 10 did stories. "Pretty soon, people were contacting me through Instagram and donating money," she said. Webb then began delivering cookies to Whole Foods, Safeway and two Pet Smarts, UC Davis Medical Center and Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville, "so it's kind of snowballing," she said. Some people will donate with a specific recipient in mind. Webb said one woman wanted cookies routed to a holistic center in Sacramento "because they cared for her and her family and she wanted to thank them. Some will just say, 'Here's the money, do what you do.' " Webb said she averages five batches of cookies per week, and there are 50-60 in a batch. They come in double chocolate, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, pumpkin snickerdoodle, oatmeal cranberry and white chocolate, and funfetti, which is popular with kids. "I've been baking a lot," she said. "It has not been a rest shelter in place for me." Because she's a fitness instructor, Webb included protein in the cookies, which have grown from a mere snack into, as Webb put it, a "vehicle to uplift people. "You can be sad before eating a cookie, and you can be sad after eating a cookie," she said. "But during the process of eating a cooking, you're not sad, for that brief moment in time."