A small family workshop that started out as an 8-year-old earning money for a new bike has made waves in the pueblo baking world, earning a top-three finish in a recent Best of Pueblo competition.
It all started last summer when Kennedy Garcia, a student at Villabella Expedition Elementary School, told her father, Christopher Garcia, that she wanted a new bike. He suggested they find a way for her to earn some money to cover the cost.
“Kennady and I always loved working in the kitchen together, so I suggested that we make cookies to sell to friends and family and make a little money,” recalls Garcia.
Harnessing the power of social media, he began posting about Kennedy’s fundraising, and “it really blew up,” he said. Before they knew it, she had $100 to throw at her new bike, and the whole event “became a business now,” he said.
Garcia himself is no stranger to entrepreneurship, having run a DJ, event planning and marketing company for 15 years. Still, he admitted he “never thought” the father-daughter hobby “would turn into anything, but we saw an opportunity to do something together.”
Through the Colorado Department of Public Health, they are taking advantage of household goods laws that allow them to bake cookies at home and sell them directly to the public. With the growing interest in Kennadi’s Kookies, they are now working to get a manufacturing food license so they can sell more cookies.
“It’s grown more than we expected. Why don’t we just give everyone in America a cookie?” Kennedy said earlier. “I know we can’t do that, but our goal is to ship cookies to all 50 states,” Garcia said.
Again, with the help of social media, they achieved this in just 75 days, marking every new state on the map as they delivered cookies.
“Because of the overwhelming response from the community, we asked those who had tried Kennadi’s Kookies to nominate us for Best Pueblo. We made the top five and then the top three,” Garcia said.
Chieftain readers who voted in the Best Pueblo Dessert category voted Taffy as their favorite, and East Coast Pizza and Kennedy’s Kookies were both named finalists. After all, who can resist those irresistible cookie flavors like mild to spicy pueblo green chile, hot cocoa cookie or cinnamon toast shortbread?
“Next year we’ll be fighting for the top spot,” Garcia said.
housework
Cookie bakers get the whole family in the business.
“We thought it would be fun to name the cookies after family members or childhood memories,” Garcia said.
“The Boys” are a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cookie, a favorite of Kennadi’s brothers Landon and Rowan Schamp. “Chocolate Chunk” is an oversized chocolate chunk cookie named after the family’s two pudgy puppies.
“Poor Kid Cookies” is a tribute to Garcia’s grandfather. The cherry cookies reminded Garcia of the free cookie samples he and his siblings returned to the bakery several times during their trip to King Soopers, where they hoped to get more than one.
“He told us ‘you’re not poor kids, grandpa’s going to buy you some more cookies,'” Garcia recalled.
Garcia’s girlfriend, Carrie Schamp, has become “the CEO of quality control and flavor testing,” he jokes.
Each new batch of cookies is baked with a small cookie, which Schamp is happy to taste for feedback.
“I take my taste test seriously,” she laughs, but she can’t name her favorite cookie.
“We’re going to have to pull out a ‘Girlfriend’ sample pack full of a bunch of different mini cookies,” joked Garcia.
Schamp isn’t the only one who can’t pick his favorites. Kennedy herself said she couldn’t.
Garcia said customers seemed to prefer chocolate chunk and cinnamon toast pretzels, but because the duo created something “not your average cookie,” flavors include Christmas hot cocoa, toasted marshmallow and peppermint bark; apple Pies, pimento fall pumpkin flavors and Halloween cookies, including the top three candies as voted by Facebook fans.
Garcia’s favorite is the Pueblo Green Chili Cookie, which features Musso Farms chili.
“We use some dynamite-grade peppers and range them from mild to very spicy. They’re really good,” says Garcia.
Kennadi has not been particularly outspoken about her business ventures, and she rarely tells her classmates.
“Most of them don’t know,” she admits, but her best friend Kali Andasola helps out with deliveries, and they sometimes like to wear matching “Kennadi’s Kookies” T-shirts to school.
To learn more about Kennadi’s Kookies, visit the Facebook page or email kennadiskookies@gmail.com.
Chiefs reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news.She can be reached at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter twitter.com/tracywumps.