Staff writer
Peabody Senior Center will begin its annual baking project Thursday afternoon and members are looking for volunteers to help.
The sale of tiny traditional Christmas cookies — peppernuts or pfeffernusse — has become the major fundraising event for the seniors. They will be baking cookies each Monday and Thursday afternoon until mid-November.
A group of volunteers spends a couple of hours each baking day preparing the cookie dough, and baking and bagging the cookies for sale closer to the holidays. It takes about 20 people to make the system work smoothly.
“We can use all the help we can get,” site director Ruth Lott said.
People are needed to operate the cookie press — a cylindrical piece of equipment with holes in the side where the dough comes out and falls onto a cookie sheet. Operating the press is more physically demanding than the other jobs and the senior center members hope some men with muscle can help with that part.
Other jobs each baking day include putting the cookies on the cookie sheets in even rows, operating the ovens, washing the pans, and cleaning the kitchen when the activity is over for the day.
There usually are 10 to 12 baking days required to make enough cookies.
“People do not need to commit to helping every day we bake,” Lott said. “We would appreciate having anyone who is able to just help out a couple of times.”
To find out more about the peppernut project or to volunteer, contact Peabody Senior Center at (620) 983-2226.