When Confections, a bakery in Lufkin, Texas, lost a large order after posting a picture of Pride-themed cookies on their social media, the owners thought they’d be in for a rough month. Instead, the internet and their community have rallied behind them.
The picture seemed innocent enough. Just six rainbow-colored, heart-shaped cookies with the caption "More LOVE. Less hate. Happy Pride to all our LGBTQ friends! All lovers of cookies and happiness are welcome here." However, it was apparently too much for some homophobes.
"Today has been hard. Really hard," the company posted to their Facebook page on June 3. "We lost a significant amount of followers because of a rainbow heart cookie we posted. We received a very hateful message on our business page canceling a large order (5 dozen) of summer-themed cookies for tomorrow morning (that we just finished decorating) because of a rainbow heart cookie we posted."
"My heart is heavy," the post continued. "Honestly I never thought a post that literally said more love less hate would result in this kind of backlash to a very small business that is struggling to stay afloat and spread a little cheer through baked goods. So, if you love our cookies we will have an over abundance of them tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be better."
And tomorrow definitely was better. By the next morning, the shop had received a deluge of orders, as well as messages of support and love. By the time the shop had been open for just two hours, a line of customers had formed around the block.
Confections sold out everything they had in the shop that day. And the next. And people are still buying cookies from the bakery to send to nursing homes and civic events. Some are even making donations to the three women who run the bakery.
"All this attention on our small business is very humbling. Makes me nervous! Those who know me (Dawn) know how shy I am. In the 11 years we’ve been open we’ve never seen anything quite like this," one of the store’s owners posted on Facebook. "We (my sister and co-owner Miranda and our fabulous baker Felicia) are just so humbled and grateful and moved by this outpouring of love. The last several people in our shop put money on their credit card for us to donate because there was nothing left to purchase."
The shop has decided to donate the money to local animal rescues after asking customers where they’d like their donated money to go.
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