Put Your Support for the Troops Where Your Mouth Is (Cookies!)

Newhouse News ^ | 12/23/2004 | Dru Sefton

[Incorrigible]

Entrepreneur Cliff Smith developed Stampers cookies to thank members of the armed forces. (Photo courtesy Cookie Club of America)

Put Your Support for the Troops Where Your Mouth Is BY DRU SEFTON More Stories by Dru Sefton

Businessman Cliff Smith wanted to do something to show support for the troops in Iraq. Something simple and tasteful... literally.

He created a unique cookie. Because, as he put it, "we all eat cookies, whether we admit it or not."

They're called Stampers U.S. Armed Forces Series Cookies, and they feature insignias of each of the four branches of military service, as well as the Coast Guard and National Guard. Part of the profits benefits the National Military Family Association.

Working from his San Diego apartment and financed by his credit cards, Smith has practically single-handedly put the crunchy vanilla-almond treats into grocery stores, including Kroger and A&P, in 23 states. He's also doing a steady online business at www.cookieclubofamerica.com.

Alesha Jones, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the golden cookies are under consideration for mention on the Defense Department's America Supports You Web site (www.americasupportsyou.mil), which recognizes what citizens are doing to show support of armed forces at home and abroad.

And they are arrayed on the buffet at Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House in northwest Washington, D.C. Walter Reed Army Medical Center is up the street, and on Friday nights restaurant co-owner Hal Koster brings in 40 or 50 wounded soldiers for dinner.

"We've had a real positive response from them about the cookies," Koster said. "They dig around to find their branch of the service. And they're just very, very good cookies!"

For Smith, 45, getting the cookies this far has been a challenge. His previous venture, a mailable CD of multimedia promotions, was set to launch during the third quarter of 2001 -- right around Sept. 11. The terrorist attacks "crushed the business," he said.

But Smith was left with a licensing agreement with the U.S. Postal Service. He used that to open doors into the byzantine world of the military bureaucracy.

Getting separate approvals to use each branch's insignia took nearly two years, Smith said. The symbols "are very highly guarded," he explained; only carefully selected items may bear them.

Meanwhile, Smith was developing the cookie. He scoped out the snack aisles of local markets.

"I was looking for something different, and vanilla almond wasn't a flavor that was readily available," he said. "I'm a dunking kind of guy, and it had to go with coffee, tea, milk or hot chocolate."

Smith wanted to sell the cookies through an interactive display, to get shoppers involved. Dog-tag-shaped cards hang from each cookie rack, enabling patrons to pen personal messages to troops.

"When someone orders cookies online to be sent overseas, we include those dog-tag greeting cards," he said.

Food historian Andrew F. Smith said that to his knowledge, "nothing has ever been done quite like this."

This Smith is editor-in-chief of the new two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and teaches culinary history at the New School University in New York City. He said while he's never heard of military insignias on food, military themes have been used to sell products, such as the Cracker Jack box: "During World War I, a sailor in uniform was put on Cracker Jacks as a way to promote the war. It's one of the few symbols developed during wartime that survive."

One person especially impressed with the cookies is Kathleen Burke, director of development for the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit advocacy group supporting service members and their relatives.

"We're inundated by people trying to develop something for military families," Burke said from her Alexandria, Va., office. "I could tell Cliff's heart was in the right place. And he'd done his research. He had all services represented, including the National Guard, which is a huge component of our fighting force."

Smith pledged the association 5 percent of his profits, and has already delivered a check, Burke said.

"The idea was to garner exposure for the NMFA as well," Smith said. The association's logo and Web site (www.nmfa.org) are on each box, and an NMFA insignia cookie is inside.

Now Smith is in talks with the Defense Commissary Agency, which approves products for the military's nearly 300 base markets worldwide. His goal is to sell the cookies on all those bases.

"Nobody supports the military like those already involved," he said, and joked: "I can just picture a Marine with kids at home: `Son, you're going to eat these Marine Corps cookies and LIKE them!"

Dec. 23, 2004


(Dru Sefton can be contacted at dru.sefton@newhouse.com.)

Not for commercial use.  For educational and discussion purposes only.

[Incorrigible]

I like it!

For anyone wanting to send stuff to the forces in Iraq, here's someone you can send to for general distribution.  Items donated are given away to service members by volunteers that work with Nancy.  (Personal Hygiene (ie toothpaste, foot powder, etc), games, books, mags are in demand)

Nancy E. Bruner
Billeting Coordinator
Logcap III Project
Camp Summerall, C-8
Bayji, Iraq
APO AE 09392
281-669-1973 Ext. 121
nancy.bruner@Halliburton.com

[HiJinx]

ping...could Nancy be another Proud Patriots outlet?

[nevergore]

just got some at the local supermarket today!! yummy! :)
-PTBAA (on Nevergore's computer)