‘Love telling our story’: Mother spreads autism awareness with cookie business
POWAY, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — During April’s Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, FOX 5 has continued to tell stories of achievement among people with autism as well as their families.
In Poway, Laura Bache and her son, Oli, have created a cookie business, combining both their skills. The business is called Oli’s Cookies. Oli, who has autism, has limited speech, so his artwork speaks loudly to his talent.
“So it all happens actually pretty fast. The hardest thing is remembering to set the timer,” said Bache while talking about she and her son’s business processes.
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Bache spends as much time baking as she can, while Oli creates all the artwork for the business.
“It’s been little by little, I’ve completely converted my home kitchen into a home office. We have an extra refrigerators, extra freezers, shelving,” Bache explained.
Bache bakes all the cookies. There are eight different plant-based options from chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, strawberry bliss, Maui macadamia nut, and their most popular flavor limoncello.
“It takes me about three hours to make about 500 cookies” said Bache. “We bake one cookie tray at a time. We are just about ready to invest in a bigger oven.”
Oli, who’s 9-years-old, does all the artwork for the cookie bags.
“He feels really good. He feels, I think, very proud of our product. He feels special that his name is on it,” Bache said of her son. “I mean the kid has always been an incredible artistic, and he is so gifted.
Behind each packaged dozen, is Oli and Laura’s story.
Laura left her job of 20 years as a chef when Oli was diagnosed with autism at age 3.
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, is defined as a broad range of conditions related to brain development. It can impact speech, social interactions plus behavior.
Click here to learn about autism from the CDC.
Click here for more information about autism from the NIH.
Bache said Oli needs 24-hour protective care.
“He has to hold my hand all the time. It’s definitely like one one-on-one constant care,” the mother told FOX 5.
Between school, behavioral therapy three times a week, speech therapy twice a week, plus baseball, soccer and swim lessons, Bache said she needed to find a business to support them.
So along came Oli’s Cookies in November 2022.
“I tell you, it’s everything to me. It’s everything to be able to do what I love, to take Oli’s art and show it to the world,” Bache said.
Laura and Oli are showing and selling at a store in Poway called Blissful Seeds, who sells art from people on the spectrum.
The mom and son also sell online, in addition to farmer’s markets around the county.
“Even though I’m not vegan, Oli’s cookies are so good,” said regular customer Joshua “Buddy” Bigelop.
“I absolutely love talking to people about autism. I love telling our story and hearing about theirs. I love sharing our cookies,” Bache continued.
“I have people wanting to thank me for just being there, for being a safe place, and that’s everything to me,” Bache added.
The Poway mother said her longterm goal is to one day employ people on the spectrum to work for Oli’s Cookies.
Bache said since the launch of Oli’s cookies, “It kind of evolved and it’s gone way bigger than I ever was imagining at first. But now I just have these big dreams and I want it to be even bigger. Now I want to be able to do great big things in the community.”
You can also buy Oli’s Cookies at a variety of farmers markets:
— Thursdays at Scripps Ranch Farmers Market from 3:30- 7:30 p.m.
— Some Saturdays at Poway Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
— Most Saturdays at Cardiff Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
— Every other Sunday at Leucadia Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Click here to order Oli’s Cookies online.
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