ANDREA GALABINSKI Charlie Kellenberger starting to plate batches of cookies to distribute to those who need cheer in the area.

Nothing says love more than a home-baked cookie, said local resident Charlie Kellenberger.

So far, he’s baked 298,749 cookies that he has recorded to distribute to the homeless, First Responders, hospital patients and non-profit organizations, or anyone who could just use a cookie.

And that was when he even started counting.

His friends call him “The Cookie Man” or “Uncle Charlie” and he has found a unique way to help those who may need it the most at an uncertain time in their lives.

North Fort Myers resident Kellenberger spends his days in a sunlit kitchen, with a background of pleasant music, making hundreds upon thousands of cookies. On his interview day of Nov. 2, his goal was 500 cookies – with 48,665 baked year-to-date and over 293,000 plus donated over the last few years for his ministry – which he dubbed “Uncle Charlie’s Cookie Ministries.”

ANDREA GALABINSKI Local resident Charlie Kellenberger has baked 298,749 cookies to date for those in need of cheer.

“I have about 200 recipes, but I use about 40 favorites,” he said.

He keeps count on his kitchen calendar, amidst numerous baking pans, bulk ingredients, and an oven a humming. His motto is a on a sign in his kitchen given by a relative, “Love baked daily.”

His priorities are a weekly visit to local soup kitchen and to a weekly homeless dinner, bringing the sweets that delight.

A Vietnam veteran who has suffered several major health problems, he bakes from his wheelchair. He is missing one leg. “My message is that I want people to know they can still do things, no matter what happens in life.”

His story started many years ago. “I was one of 12 kids – I was called Chucky back then. You could find me by my mom’s apron strings in the kitchen.”

A sign in his kitchen reads ”Love baked daily.”

He said he watched one teen sister burn a cake, and asked mom for help. “My mother was a master chef in the kitchen – with an 8th grade education.”

He made his first creation and baked over the years, but was never a professional. He just loved to bake.

After a military career and running a successful business in Cape Coral for more than 20 years, he decided to start his cookie ministry.

It began by making cookies when he visited those in the hospitals. Cookies, he said, brightened even those who were incredibly down up.

After Hurricane Charley, he also took his cookies to first responders, and has visited local fire stations and law enforcement offices to spread cookie cheer – something few can resist.

“I took 7,000 cookies out to the first responders, FEMA personnel, a Catholic Church on Pine Island, and a trailer park that was devastated by the storm.”

Word spread on what he was doing.

“I started taking cookies everywhere and a couple from Chicago read about what I was doing,” he said, of a fateful meeting many years ago.

When John and Jeanne Gergenheimer heard about his contributions in 2004, they started bringing bulk ingredients to his home. “There was a knock on the door and they brought 25 pounds of flour, then the next week sugar and nuts and they kept showing up. John encouraged me to start keeping track of what I baked.”

The numbers were unbelievable, especially after the couple got him a deluxe mixer, which allowed him to significantly increase his production.

“They said, we like what you are doing, and the Bible said to feed the hungry. Maybe it didn’t mean cookies, but that’s what I do.”

Though cookies may be considered a stretch on feeding, Kellenberger said they are almost always welcome. “The homeless may have teeth problems, but they can eat cookies,” he noted. “They appreciate them very much.”

He doesn’t push his ministry/religious aspect of the sweet gifts, he said. “If they want to pray with me that’s fine, if they don’t we don’t.”

His family helps with his activities. His wife Ingrid is “the love of his life” who he courted in Innsbruck, Austria, after visiting a foreign exchange student friend there from his hometown in Minnesota.

“I met her in a small shop in Innsbruck when she helped me pick out a Christmas card for my little brother.”

He said he was captivated by her sunny disposition, and had her family in tow for their first coffee date. “We’ve been married 46 years.”

Also helping him with his endeavors this month his daughter-in-law Fabiola, who speaks Spanish, particularly helped him distribute cookies to Spanish-speaking locals in need.

Kellenberger was the owner of Cape Coral’s Back To Nature Health Food Store for 24 years, and has now been a North Fort Myers resident for the past three years.

His stops have included sheriff’s sub-stations, fire houses, local hospitals and the soup kitchen in Fort Myers as well as a weekly dinner for the homeless in North Fort Myers.

He even traveled to Estero last week to take some cookies to a group.

If you would like to contact Kellenberger, call 567-2253. “That’s 567-bake,” he said.