Caring With Cookies aims to bring cheer to shelters at Christmas

Stacy Middlemiss is one sweet lady.

For the past eight years, Middlemiss has baked and delivered cookies to Vancouver Islanders experiencing homelessness during Christmas time through her Caring With Cookies project.

For the past seven years, the annual baking drive has collected thousands of homemade cookies and delivered them to local shelters on Christmas Eve.

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"I was just kinda in a place where I was looking for something to get me back into the true meaning of Christmas," she told All Points West guest host Kirstie Hudson.

"I have a passion for mental health and homelessness, and through that I came up with Caring With Cookies, and I never thought that it would grow to be as big as it is today."

In 2008, Caring With Cookies was Middlemiss and a few friends and family baking cookies for a single shelter.

Last year, the project donated almost 5,800 cookies in 977 packages to 15 shelters in Victoria, Duncan and Nanaimo.

She relies on a network of dedicated volunteer bakers to make those numbers possible.

"It's really become a tradition in a lot of people's houses at Christmas," she said. "That to me just blows my mind that this little thing I started is something people look forward to every year."

Vancouver Islanders who want to donate their own baked goods to the project can drop off cookies at various locations on Vancouver Island by Dec. 21.

You can find a list of donation locations here.

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Caring With Cookies brings Christmas joy to Vancouver Island shelters