Greenwich High School student Vihaan Kamath started Cookies for a Cause to support families with children who are blind, need prosthetics, or are fighting cancer. He spoke with WSHU's Randye Kaye about baking cookies in his home kitchen and donating 100% of the proceeds to help kids.
WSHU: I'm Randy Kaye, and this is Good at Heart, conversations with people who quietly make the world better. Now today's guest is 16 years old, and he says on his website, I've always believed small things, even a cookie, can create real change. So let's find out how. Tell us your name and the name of your nonprofit.
VK: My name is Vihaan Kamath, and I am the president and founder of Cookie for a Cause, Inc.
WSHU: Cookie for a Cause, Inc., and you're how old, Vihaan?
VK: 16 years old.
WSHU: And a half right?
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: 16 and a half. I like half birthdays. So I have been reading on your website. So, Vihaan, who do you help and how?
VK: So I help children and families who like, really, need help financially for their kid. So we have focused on helping children who are blind or part of the blind Institute who require prosthetic limbs, and now we are working mainly on children who, unfortunately, have cancer. And the way we support these causes is I myself bake cookies at my house, in my own kitchen. I bake chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, and sugar cookies, and I just sell them locally and to businesses that you know that order cookies. I reach out to local companies that I think would be able to support. And yeah, that's basically how I raise money.
WSHU: So you bake. All you. No helpers?
VK: No, just me, yeah.
WSHU: You bake cookies, and you sell them. And the money goes to help kids.
VK: Yeah, 100% of the profits go to help kids.
WSHU: How do you find the kids, as you mentioned, kids who are blind, kids who need prosthetic limbs, kids who have cancer, and you live where?
VK: Greenwich, Connecticut.
WSHU: Greenwich, Connecticut. And you go to Greenwich High School?
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: Yes. How did this begin? Like, how did you start doing this? And how do you go about finding people who need your help?
VK: So, ever since I was around 13 years old, I've been volunteering a lot. And I visited many places, volunteered at places like blind institutes and these pediatric cancer hospitals, and that's the main thing that inspired me to start this. And I've talked to many families, met many children, even my age, who have suffered through many different things. And I've heard stories from families like, they had to move across the whole country just to get care for their child, get the correct treatment, and many of them had lost their jobs. So that experience kind of stuck with me, and that's what was the main inspiration for this. So when I started raising funds, it was very small at first, you know, I'm 16, like, I didn't know how to create a big business. I didn't think it was going to grow this big. So I just started reaching out to local family, neighbors, you know, just seeing, like, would you want to buy a cookie to support my cause or donate? And that kind of rippled into me reaching out to local businesses and other corporations, who, you know, have parties. Everybody you know needs cookies for some reason. So, yeah, many of them started ordering. Many of them started donating. And I started donating back to the places I volunteered.
WSHU: Wow, Vihan, I have so many questions. And just to paint a picture, here, I'm sitting across from Vihan, and he's got a black sweatshirt with a logo, Cookie for a Cause, it looks like a chocolate chip cookie with little crumbs, homemade cookies. So you're a walking logo for yourself. I want one of those sweatshirts. Do you sell sweatshirts too?
VK: Coming up, yeah.
WSHU: So you can sell swag, as we call it, but I'm fascinated. You're volunteering at 13 years old. Whose idea was this? Did you start because it was a school project, or did you just go to your parents and say, "Hey, I'm 13"? I want to help other people. Like, how did this start?
VK: So every summer, most summers since I was 13, I used to go visit my grandparents, who live in India. So my grandmother is part of a nonprofit there. And when I used to go down, I usually got really bored. So I was like, might as well just go on one of these trips with her, to one of these, you know, local schools or hospitals or wherever she's going to help out. And I didn't think about it much. I just thought about it as, okay, I'm gonna go down and help out. But the things I saw there, and like the children I saw there and what they were going through and seeing how much they have, or how little they have, and how much I have just made me see, like how much I've taken for granted here, and that's what inspired me to just keep going back each summer to volunteer and eventually start Cookie for a Cause.
WSHU: It began in India.
VK: Yes.
WSHU: Summers. With your grandmother.
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: And now, are the children you help in India, or are they local?
VK: So when I first started this around in April, I was mainly focusing on Asia, because I was planning on going back there that summer to go and, you know, volunteer again, and I thought it would be a great idea to, you know, give some of these funds and then see how it's actually helping these kids. But after I got back from that trip, I was fortunate enough to partner with St. Jude's Research Children's Hospital, so I've been working with them for the past couple of months, and we have a couple of events planned coming up to help even more kids locally, now in the New York and national area.
WSHU: Wow, St. Jude's, so if people go to your website, Cookie for a Cause.org, they can find out about the events there as well.
VK: Yeah, we'll be uploading them shortly. We're still planning, you know, New Year, they had a couple of events coming up, but yeah, definitely.
WSHU: Now let's go to cookies. Why cookies? When did you start having an interest in baking? Have you always baked? Do your parents bake?
VK: It's something that was in my family, really. I've been baking cookies with my mom and my grandparents for a while. And when I was thinking about starting this, I wanted something that was scalable, but also easy, because I have school. I have a lot of things I do.
WSHU: Yeah, you play saxophone. You're like, tell me the other things you do?
VK: Yeah, I play saxophone. I'm part of a jazz ensemble. I do track and cross country year-round. So I have to do that after school. And then I have, like, you know, tests to prepare for. So it's definitely not easy. And when I was thinking about this, you know, cookies are easy to make a lot of, and they're small. You can transport them without them breaking or whatever. So it just seemed like the simplest thing to do.
WSHU: How many cookies do you bake every week?
VK: Well, it depends on the orders. Usually, because I prepare on the weekends, I have no time during the week, but I usually prepare around eight to 10 dozen cookies a week. And during the holiday season, actually, we were fortunate enough to get I think there was one company that ordered for the New York and local Connecticut branches, and they had ordered over 1000 cookies, which I hadt o do, yeah.
WSHU: Yeah. You have a little brother, right?
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: How old is he?
VK: Seven.
WSHU: Does he help you? Or does he just eat the batter?
VK: He eats the cookies. Unfortunately, yeah.
WSHU: He doesn't help you bake, though he's too young.
VK: No.
WSHU: What does he think of this? What is he when he talks to his friends about you? I know he's little seven, but...
VK: Yeah, yeah, he's definitely told his friends, and you know. I feel like he's inspired, and he definitely wants to join this when you know he grows up a little, or even when you know in the next couple of years. So yeah, he's looking forward to it.
WSHU: Wow, do other people help you with this? Your parents. Have you inspired other kids in your school, like, what other people help you do this thing?
VK: As with my parents, their way of contributing to my cause is to help pay for a lot of the expenses, which is, you know, when I was going to Asia to volunteer there, they paid for the flight tickets, many of my resources, so I'm able to donate 100 percent of the proceeds. So that's their way of contributing, and as a form of help for stalls. And now, recently, I'm starting a student board to help out. So in the future, when I, you know, graduate, I can still kind of, you know, keep things rolling, but I have a lot of volunteers from my school who help out, who are mainly freshmen and sophomores, and I'm just, you know, just working on growing and making this bigger in the long term.
WSHU: Wow, that that is amazing. Okay, who or what inspires you? Obviously, you mentioned your grandmother and your parents helped you so you can donate all the proceeds, not just the profits, which is amazing. Like, what's great advice you got, or a quote that sparked you, or a person that inspired you, what would you like to pass on that has been passed on to you?
VK: Well, it was something my grandmother definitely brought up, and I've definitely learned that this, being so young and starting, is definitely not easy. You know, it's hard to get credibility, it's definitely hard to scale with, you know, school and stuff, but I knew I couldn't solve every problem in the world, but definitely, any small action will definitely lead to something bigger and better for the future. That's something that really stuck with me, and that's kind of what, you know, still kind of motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing. Because knowing that something like I just started with, you know, one cookie stall, one bake sale, and now it's reached out to so many partnerships and so many companies that helped.
WSHU: Wow. Now, you mentioned St. Jude's. Is there anybody else that you partner with that you want to mention?
VK: We've partnered with Yale New Haven Children's Hospital recently. I recently reached out to a large corporation to provide toys for both St. Jude and Yale New Haven. So that was pretty exciting. Yeah.
WSHU: So cookies and toys?
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: So, how can others help you do what you do?
VK: For helping, I want everybody who wants to contribute to help in their own communities. You know, it doesn't have to be baking cookies. It just has to be something that they're passionate about and towards a cause that they support. Because if you do something that's passionate, for me, it was baking cookies, it makes it a lot easier and more fun to do other things than, “I just have to do this, to do this”. In terms of helping Cookie for a Cause, personally, if you visit my website, even just ordering a dozen cookies, or donating a little bit, it means a lot, or volunteering, anything that can help raise awareness for us, that'd be great. Yep.
WSHU: That's wonderful. So you have about 14 years before you can run for president, right? So I nominate you. Is there anything else you wanted to mention or talk about that I haven't? I know your dad is here with you today. Anything you want to say about your parents or your family, or anything else you want to say about Cookie for a Cause.
VK: It's been great. I've had a lot of people support me in this, which I'm really thankful for. A lot of businesses that supported me locally, which I'm really thankful for. And just going into the future, I just hope to keep expanding this and inspiring more young people like myself when I started this, to just, you know, even start something, it doesn't have to be a big impact. Just start something and stick with it to see how big it gets.
WSHU: I love that. You know, our first episode was two 16-year-old Trumbull High School students who I met going into the library, and they were collecting school supplies. I love what you said about you know, just do something small.
VK: Yeah.
WSHU: A small action. I call it sweeping your corner. We can't save the world, but we can do something small to help someone. And it does kind of expand. I believe that good energy, being good at heart, expands out into the universe. So Vihan, my final question is, why do you think we're here on earth?
VK: Well, we're definitely here for each other, and, you know, helping each other thrive in this community. We're all here for a reason, and that is so we can live our lives, fulfill our lives to the fullest. And I think it's really important that we all support each other. And I've definitely seen the major negative impacts of Earth, and children are one of the main groups who are impacted by this. So it's really important to be kind, spread kindness, and just be here for everybody.
WSHU: I love that. You know, I'm a mom and a grandmother, and my grandkids are about your brother's age, but if the future of this world is in hands like yours, I have a lot of hope and faith. So thank you for bringing that to Good at Heart today.
VK: Thank you so much for having me.
