This story first appeared in the Mon Valley Independent.
As is the case with many large Italian families, cookies could be found at every one of Laura Magone’s family gatherings — whether a wedding, a christening or even a funeral. Raised by a steelworker and a homemaker in Monongahela, a city of 4,000, Magone is proud to carry on the tradition of the wedding cookie table. With four immigrant grandparents, she and her family have always embraced their ethnicity — and culinary skills.
And today, with the help of almost 300,000 strangers around the world, she continues to spread tradition and sweetness.
Magone founded the Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook group in 2015, after arriving early to a wedding and realizing just how much time, effort and care had gone into the cookie table’s preparation.
Her original plan was to create a documentary of the history of the cookie table but soon discovered that little footage existed. So, she pivoted, utilizing Facebook as a tool to document and share this southwestern Pennsylvania tradition.
“I work on it every day,” says Magone. “It’s the equivalent of a full-time job, but it’s a labor of love.”
Now, coming up on its 10-year anniversary, the page has grown to nearly 300,000 members worldwide. Members of the group share recipes and how-to’s, such as how many cookies to prepare per person, and how to freeze cookies so that they keep well.
“I hear all the time that my community is the reason that people stay on Facebook,” says Magone. “It’s been a source of pride that this group is seen as positive and uplifting.”
But Magone and her cookie community do more good than simply sharing tips and tricks. After the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, the group came together to provide cookies for first responders.
“We wanted to find a way to thank them,” Magone says. “To use the cookie table concept to help people who were hurting or show appreciation for something heroic.”
The community came together again a few years later, except now, it was thousands of miles away, in Uvalde, Texas.
Following the elementary school shooting there in 2022, Magone posted on the page to see if any members could help with a long-distance cookie table. Countless members offered to bake, and three members from San Antonio, just a short drive from Uvalde, responded that they’d be willing to organize the event. Judi Coulter-Salazar, originally from Uniontown, offered for members to send their cookies and donations to her house.
“Next thing I know, my living room was kind of a warehouse,” says Coulter-Salazar. “It was like a business but for the whole purpose of helping the community.”
Coulter-Salazar and the other volunteers rented a U-Haul and drove the donations to Uvalde. In addition to setting up the event, they delivered cookies to the local hospital and the business that had designed the victims’ caskets. But cookies were just the beginning — Magone also encouraged group members to donate stuffed animals and grief books for those attending the event.
“All the credit goes to Laura. She really thought of everything. It was remarkable,” says Coulter-Salazar. “It’s a community that wants to do good for people, and they do it through baking. It’s hospitality; it’s a labor of love. You don’t do something, or make something, without thinking of the people you’re making it for.”
Magone also organizes events called “Cookie Colleges.” Held in Washington County, these events are a way for members to meet in real life. They started in 2023, after the original event was canceled due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Cookie Colleges feature cookie-making demonstrations, vendors looking for new products, and, the centerpiece of the event, two 40-foot cookie tables. The most recent Cookie College, held Aug. 25, sold out. Members from all over the United States attended, and even one person traveled from Denmark. The Wedding Cookie Table Community has also been featured on local and national television shows, including a segment on NBC’s “Today” show.
Although the Wedding Cookie Table Community is a public page, every member has to be approved before they’re allowed to comment. On average, there are 250 applicants a day, and even more if a post goes viral. A few months ago, Melissa Richey, a lifelong friend of Magone’s, started helping her vet and admit members.
“The main thing is to try to keep someone who doesn’t have the right intentions out of the group,” says Richey. “We want people who are interested in baking or observing this cookie table culture.”
Richey’s involvement allows Magone to spend more time making sure members are abiding by the rules of the page. But she says she rarely has to boot someone from the group — and they can usually come back if they apologize.
“We don’t have to weed out a lot of people,” says Magone. “I tell them to play nice, or I’ll send them to the newt farm in Bunola.”
Though, Magone does say the page is overwhelming — not because of the upkeep it requires, but because of the sheer scale. It’s because of her that people all around the world know the tradition and history of the cookie table.
“When I started this page, I thought we were responsible for maintaining this tradition, but now I feel we are just as responsible in sharing it,” says Magone. “Some of these cookies, you would not find elsewhere — lady locks, kolaches, peach cookies, nut rolls. This is a tradition born of the area. It’s important that people understand what a critical role the Mon Valley has had, because of our ties to steel and our immigrant background.”
For this reason, whenever possible, Magone holds events locally — such as in 2019, when the Facebook group established the Guinness World Record for the largest wedding cookie table.
“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Why’d you do it in Monongahela?’” says Magone. “And it’s partly because of pride, but it’s partly because, if I can do anything to help the local economy, I try to do that. I’m certainly proud of this hard-working region, but I’m especially proud of the small area that I’m from.”
Suffice to say, Magone’s cookie community is beyond anything she could have anticipated. But the intentions and history behind it are unchanged.
“It’s not just about putting cookies on a table,” says Magone. “It’s the meaning behind a community coming together to celebrate life.”
This Mon Valley Independent story is one in a series on Western Pennsylvania doers from a partnership of about 30 regional newsrooms as part of an inaugural Newsapalooza event, Sept. 27-28. The collaborative series demonstrates the power of a story when networked through an entire community. Read more on the event and buy tickets at newsapalooza.org.
Others in the series:
New Castle native sows seeds of knowledge, positivity (from the New Castle News)
Faces of the Valley: Volunteering and firefighting is family affair for Lower Burrell woman (from TribLive.com)
She came back a different person to help people and live well (from Soul Pitt Quarterly)
A Joe of all trades helps his North Side neighbors (from ‘YaJagoff!’)
Pittsburgh environmental activist’s ‘sustainability salons’ foster community (from The Allegheny Front)
A Penn Hills candy factory is making life sweeter for folks on the autism spectrum(from Pittsburgh Magazine)
‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court (from Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Juliana Morello
Juliana is a freelance writer and editor. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and was an intern for Point Park University's Pittsburgh Media Partnership.