Imagine a company that gives away nearly all its product for free and depends on the kindness of others to make the product, and to provide the materials and a place to make it. That’s how the nonprofit Cookies for Better not only operates, but also thrives. Its product is—you guessed it—cookies. Its by-products, so to speak, are goodwill and happiness.
Cookies for Better has been the mission of Gavin Ballard and Logan Dane, two friends since elementary school who graduated from Northview High School in May. Thanks to their talents in baking, organizing and entrepreneurship, six local charities receive a total of 850 cookies every two weeks to distribute to the people they help.
Such ambition started simply. Ballard founded a baking club at Northview as a sophomore, focusing on his passions for baking and community service. “We baked muffins, pies, cakes, all staple baked goods,” which were donated to nonprofits, he said. Dane joined in.
“We started as Baking for Better,” Ballard said. The “Better” represented their passion as Eagle Scouts to help improve their local community. After a while, they found that cookies were easier to bake and package for delivery, and that the club’s name was copyrighted elsewhere, so “Cookies for Better” it became.
In December 2024 Cookies for Better became a 501( c )(3) nonprofit. Ballard, vice president, and Dane, president, spent 2025 “finding our footing – learning the cottage food laws, regulations, paperwork,” Dane said. “Now that we have that sorted out, we can focus on donating cookies.”
But as Northview ceased being a viable place for baking, the duo had to find a new kitchen. They reached out to Temple Shomer Emunim in Sylvania and was given free use of their commercially-licensed kitchen. This worked well because right next door is the Jewish Senior, Family and Social Services of Greater Toledo center, which began supplying much of the baking ingredients Ballard and Dane required, also for free.
Thus situated, Cookies for Better got into a rhythm. Every Tuesday, Ballard, Dane, and several volunteers convene at the Temple to bake. One week they freeze what they bake, the next week they thaw those out and bake fresh.
Then Dane delivers 850 cookies in total to: Cherry Street Mission, 200 cookies; Connecting Kids to Meals, 200 cookies; SeaGate Food Bank of Northwest Ohio, 200 cookies; Sylvania Area Family Services, 100 cookies; Jewish Senior, Family, and Social Services food bank, 100 cookies, and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northwest Ohio, 50.
Extra cookies are baked for sale at the Sylvania Summer Market at Olander Park from 5-8 p.m. Tuesdays. Proceeds—they sell about 250 cookies there each week—help finance the operation, along with sponsorships, Dane said.
The cookies mostly are chocolate chip—“our recipe is absolutely amazing,” Dane said—and they’re experimenting with other flavors, including lemon blueberry.
By the way, each has a job at Highland Meadows Golf Club: Dane is a line cook; Ballard is a cook at the snack shack.
The goodwill that they spread goes beyond providing free cookies. “This is a nice little friendship-partnership that benefits everyone,” said Hannah Loeser, office manager and program associate for the Jewish center. “All I have to do is get baking supplies. In return, we get bulk cookies, which is more than worth it to me. It’s raised the level of the food bank.
“We get 20 to 30 families a week. We can send them home with not just the basics but also a treat—everyone deserves a treat.”
So far as turning those baking supplies into cookies, “We provide a commercially licensed kitchen at no cost to them because we want to participate in philanthropy not just in the Jewish community but the general community,” said Lynn Nusbaum, executive director of Temple Shomer Emunim. “We’re happy to do it,” she said, adding, “it makes life sweeter for others.”
Nusbaum said, “Logan and Gavin are wonderful to work with. I’m impressed that they took this project on. They are a role model for others.”
As for the future, each will begin at the University of Toledo in the fall – Ballard will major in finance; Dane, in business administration. And they’ll continue to run Cookies for Better. They hope to develop the nonprofit into providing them fulltime jobs.
“Gavin and myself are dedicated to keep this going and growing,” Dane said. “I have no doubt we’ll be able to do that.”
