The cookies that you buy today just might help someone else to have a hot meal tomorrow.  That’s because Connie Milstein and Connie’s Bakery and General Store donate 100% of their after-tax profits from the store to six charitable non-profits.  They do so with the Foundation of Sweet Success and they select different organizations each year to receive the donations.

This year, Meals-on-Wheels of White Plains is one of the recipients of the Foundation Sweet Success money. They are a non-profit organization that delivers food and companionship to people who might otherwise be alone and hungry all day.

Their services are available for anyone living in the city of White Plains who can’t shop for meals for themselves or who can’t prepare their own meals.  This is regardless of age or income.  They accept referrals from all sorts of locations including doctors, hospitals, social workers, family and more.

Their volunteers deliver two nutritious meals, planned by a professional dietician, a day to homebound individuals.

Kathy Roth-Douquet is chairman of the Board of Blue Star Families as well as being its founder and President.  She is an advocate for military families as well as a noted author, having enjoyed much success with her book AWOL, The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service and How It Hurts the Country (with Frank Schaeffer, HarperCollins) which Sen. John McCain said was “a great service” to America.  In Leatherneck magazine, she was termed a “spokesperson for military families.”  On the board with Roth-Douquet as Director of Washington DC BSF, is Connie Milstein.

Connie Milstein’s parents, Seymour and Vivian, established the Seymour and Vivian Milstein Award (more commonly known as the Milstein Award) over 20 years ago. This year will mark the 22nd ceremony of its kind and will present an award for “scientific achievement in interferon and cykotine research.” Interferons and cykotines take part in all the body’s biological workings and can advance certain diseases like hepatitis, influenza, cancers, autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and lupus. Interferons are so crucial that they have been referred to as “evolution’s first and perhaps most important invention for the survival of animals.” The reason research in this area is so vital is that  over 50% of all communicable diseases that affect humans are caused by viruses. Interferons should help one’s immune system “detect and thwart foreign invaders such as viruses,” which makes it all the more important that we “continue to probe the nature of interferon and other cykotines and [establish] how they are integral to a healthy immune system.” That is why the Milstein Award is so important to help the world find cures for such terribly, oft-fatal, diseases.