South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Parkland teen’s cookbook raises funds for charity
What started off as family-bonding time in the kitchen for Parkland’s Taylor Aks has evolved into so much more, as the teen recently created a quarantine cookbook to raise funds for the SOS Children’s Villages Florida nonprofit charity.
With over $1,500 in donations raised in just the past three weeks, Aks’ cookbook, “Cooking with Love During Quarantine,” has garnered success in a short span of time. From appetizers to desserts, the cookbook includes 86 recipes with help from some of her closest friends and family members.
“There are recipes from all over,” Aks said. “Because we have so many people from different cultures, we have some Chinese recipes and Vietnamese recipes. We just have recipes from all over. It’s also very easy for parents to make with kids. With cooking, we want to incorporate people from all ages. They want to make it a family thing to create new memories.”
Taylor, along with her mother Pam Aks, decided to offer the cookbook digitally so 100% of the proceeds would benefit the SOS Children’s Villages Florida. Since the recipes are available digitally, the cookbook is sold based on the honor system, so individuals are asked to not share copies with others.
Each copy is sold for $10 with additional donations also being accepted. After being available for three weeks, Taylor has been able to sell over 100 copies.
“I wanted to donate the funds to this organization because I feel like they’re doing amazing things with children,” said Aks, a 10th-grader at Florida Atlantic University High School in Boca Raton. “Children don’t get to choose their family situations. I’ve been extremely blessed with a great family. SOS Children’s Villages, they create stable, loving families for orphans. So I just felt like I wanted to give them all the proceeds.”
Visit bit.ly/38R3yOh and sosflorida.com/.