Smile Cooking Season Approaching!

Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 06:55

The locations in Woodstock, Ingersoll and Innerkip will raise funds for VON Sakura House and United Way Oxford next week.

WOODSTOCK, INGERSOLL, INNERKIP - Tim Hortons employees are bracing themselves for Smile Cookie season!

Lots of people will be hitting up the local drive-thrus and restaurants next week to get their hands on the chocolate chunk cookies with the pink and blue icing smile. They cost $2 each and all of the proceeds go to local charities.

The locations in Woodstock, Ingersoll and Innerkip will be raising funds for United Way Oxford and VON Sakura House once again.

Brittany Bratt, the Fund Development Manager for VON Sakura House, says these funds allow them to continue offering end of life care to local families, free of cost.

"Last year alone, we served 297 patients and their families through that end of life journey as Oxford County's only residential hospice and 10 bed hospice. These funds help us reach our fundraising goal for the year, we look to fundraise right around $1.2 million every year."

Macy LeConte, the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for United Way, says all of the funds United Way receives from the Smile Cookie campaign benefit local programs in our community.

"Everything stays local because we are 100 percent local! So all of the funds raise through this campaign help continue our mission of supporting every single person in Oxford County. It impacts the one in five people that are impacted by a United Way Oxford funded program every single year."

United Way provides financial assistances to programs that fall under its three main pillars; Poverty to Possibility, Strong Communities, and All That Kids Can Be.

Donovan Minshall is the owner of two of the Tim Hortons locations in Woodstock, one at 857 Devonshire Ave and the other at 942 Dundas Street. He says Smile Cookie week is one of their busiest times of the year, with everyone wanting to support the cause.

"Everyone just wants to do it and give to the charities. We'll sell them and there are people that don't want cookies, but they will pay it forward and give us $20 to give the next 10 cars in the drive thru cookies."

The cookies are decorated by volunteers, and LeConte says lots of cookie decorators have already signed up for this campaign.

The Tim Hortons locations and Woodstock, Ingersoll and Innerkip have raised over $700,000 total for United Way and Sakura House over the last five years, with over $102,000 raised in the spring of 2025.The funds are always split 50/50 between the two organizations.

Brittant Bratt, Macy LeConte, and Donovan Minshall stopped by the Heart FM studio to chat with Dan and Marcie on Wednesday, April 22nd. You can listen to the full interview below: