Rockville Teen 'Bakes' A Difference

Hometown Holidays means games, food and concerts. But the festival also helps to support the causes of several nonprofit organizations.

Jackie Price, a 16-year-old junior at Col. Zadok Magruder High School is a big part of one those causes.

Price organizes a bake sale for Share Our Strength, a nonprofit whose goal is to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. However, this is no ordinary bake sale.

“Jackie is passionate and dedicated not only to our cause but to her friends and community. When she takes something on, she does it big,” said Jessica Bomberg, the senior coordinator for the Great American Bake Sale, a campaign of Share Our Strength that aims to raise money to end childhood hunger by mobilizing Americans to hold bake sales in their communities.

Price was recognized last year as a "Bake Sale Rock Star"—one of 101 bake sale teams and organizers who raised $1,000 or more.

To prepare for Hometown Holidays, Price said she would need to bake about 2,000 cookies. She hopes that will help her meet her goal of raising $3,500 in donations. On Sunday, she got the majority of the process out of the way by baking for 11 hours. She had no problem taste-testing some of her products.

“I have a little bit of a sweet tooth,” admitted Price.

In addition to baking thousands of baked goods, Price and her mother also put a lot of time and effort into decorating their booth, which could win an extra $500 toward their donation to Share Our Strength. Price has won the Hometown Holidays prize in the past.

Price found out about the Great American Bake Sale through a commercial that she saw while watching a cooking program.

“What I really love is that it helps kids. When I was growing up, I had the opportunity to cook and eat what I wanted to. When I see those kids who don’t have that, I want to help,” Price said.

Now in her third consecutive year of organizing a bake sale, Price has raised over $10,000.

Price raises a few thousand dollars every year with her Great Rockville Bake Sale, according to Bomberg.

“The money raised stays in Maryland," Price said. “It helps the kids who need help in Montgomery County and even in Rockville. It’s a good feeling helping out especially neighbors.”

Price still has high school to finish up and is looking at Johnson & Wales University to peruse a degree in—of course—culinary nutrition.

She's already had one top instructor in the kitchen: "Top Chef" contestant and Washington restauranteur Spike Mendelsohn, with whom Price has struck up a friendship over the years.

For more information on the Great American Bake Sale, go to gabs.strength.org.