Eau Claire Want Cookie Dough Factory! Om Nom Nom Nom!
Calling all Cookie Monsters! Clubs Choice Fundraising – whose goodies and gifts are sold by schools and other nonprofit groups as fundraisers – is opening a cookie dough factory in a 13,000 square-foot building leased from Huntsinger Farms south of Eau Claire on Highway 37. Its goal: two million boxes of cookie dough by year three. The mixing bowl has a 1,500 pound capacity and measures 7 feet high by 7 1/2 feet, with lines taking up 12 feet of floor space, according to Pete Garza, the project manager leading the team to make this happen. Thousands of little easy-to-pop-in-the-oven-and-bake frozen cookies, called “hockey pucks” in the trade, will be sold in three-pound boxes, 48 cookies per box, perfect for parties or sneaking from the cookie jar at home. The dozen flavors include such staples as chocolate chip (of course), oatmeal raisin, and sugar. How many cookie dough makers needed? Ten initially, which will increase to 30 by year three. Keebler elves need not apply.