While Victory Love + Cookies may well have been taking form when I was a kid baking cookies for sleepovers, it was the diagnosis of cancer in 2006 and the subsequent awakening to my purpose that really kicked it into reality. Up until that time I had been working as a baker and manager for The Denver Bread Company. I retired to think and heal for a couple of years and when I was clear – in mind and body – I realized I was exactly where I wanted to be – in The Denver Bread Company – working next to who I wanted to be working with – Greg Bortz – and doing what I wanted to be doing – baking. But I wanted to do it my way. Anyone who knows me knows that “my way” is always going to involve lots of cookies and lots of love. So in September 2008, I began selling my cookies at the retail counter of The Denver Bread Company.
That was over a decade ago. Today, I have a staff of dedicated cookie bakers and a wonderfully supportive community of customers. We are still baking inside DBC and I’m still standing next to Greg, although now he is my husband as well as my best friend.
It is my intention to get our cookies out into the world, spreading love and light, sugar and flavor, by whatever means necessary. Cookies are meant to be shared – whether its with someone you love, your neighbor whose having a hard time, your employees who have worked so hard, a client you wish to entice, or just someone with whom you’d like to connect.
So still you ask, what is VLC all ‘About’? While the obvious answer is “cookies” they are only part of the equation. And I do see it as an equation. Love + Cookies = Victory. VLC is about expressing love and connecting to family, friends, even strangers – after all a stranger is only someone else’s family or friend. By choosing love and connection we all win.
I wish you all sweet victory, love, and yes, of course, cookies.
-Kristy Greenwood Bortz