Lynn Yeager & Janice Copley of The Cookie Momsters
(Jacksonville, Florida)
On most afternoons, The Cookie Momsters Bakery in Jacksonville, Florida, is crowded with families taking time out of their hectic schedules to enjoy freshly baked pastries, cookies, and muffins with each other and their neighbors. You would never know by the smiles on the kids’ faces that these baked goods are completely free of gluten, dairy, soy and wheat products-ingredients most of the children in this bakery cannot tolerate.
To Lynn Yeager and Janice Copley, Owners and Operators of The Cookie Momsters, afternoons like this mean they have achieved success. They are doing exactly what they set out to do when they founded their business two years ago: creating cookies and other sweets for children with food allergies that taste exactly like the treats they grew up enjoying.
The idea for The Cookie Momsters started with a lunchtime discussion in a middle school cafeteria, where Lynn and Janice were both teachers. Lynn recalls sharing with Janice how frustrating it was to be unable to whip up a batch of yummy cookies at home for her three-year-old son, Jacob, due to the restrictions placed on his diet following a diagnosis of autism. Janice told Lynn that she thought they should create their own frozen cookie dough for moms in the same situation. Right there in that school lunchroom, The Cookie Momsters was born.
Janice and Lynn got to work creating their original chocolate chip cookie recipe, testing each version on their seventh and eight grade students who were free of food allergies and therefore knew what a good chocolate cookie should taste like. After their 17th attempt, The Cookie Momsters’ chocolate chip cookie beat Nestle Tollhouse’s version!
Not long after, Lynn and Janice had come up with tasty recipes for other allergy-free cookies and were shipping their frozen cookie dough all over Florida. Since then, they have opened the only gluten-free bakery in Northeast Florida. Individuals can also order their gluten-free cookie dough mixes online through their website.
For Lynn and Janice, the most rewarding part of starting their own business has been seeing children’s faces light up when they discover that they are allowed to eat their sweets-and that those sweets actually taste good. REALLY good.
"We get more praise for our cookies and muffins and cakes than we ever did teaching," Lynn said.
As the business has grown, so has the need to have their product labels professionally printed. The Cookie Momsters trusted Lightning Labels to print their custom labels on the recommendation of Gabby’s Ice Cream, and they haven’t looked back since.
“The quality’s great, and (Lighting Labels) has been awesome to work with," Lynn said.
(Christy Correll)