Bill designates 4th-graderâs recipe as State Cookie of Alabama
Students at Trinity Presbyterian School enlivened the study of Alabama history this year with a creative project that could result in state lawmakers establishing a new state symbol.
The Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to designate the Yellowhammer cookie as the State Cookie of Alabama. The recipe is a creation of Trinity fourth-grader Mary Claire Cook. who collaborated with her grandmother and made sure to incorporate ingredients with a rich Alabama tradition, including peanuts, pecans, and oats. Mary Claire’s recipe was chosen over about 25 others submitted by her classmates.
“We are learning about state symbols and Alabama history,” Trinity college counselor Kathryn Bandy said. “And we figured out that Alabama doesn’t have a state cookie but other states do. And we felt like we needed a state cookie as well. So fourth graders worked together to come up with recipes and they had a vote and Mary Claire’s cookie won, the Yellowhammer cookie.”
The project was a joint effort of Trinity fourth-graders and seniors.
“We’re super blessed to have all of our students from K through 12 on one campus,” Bandy said. “So we get to partner all the time with students no matter what their ages are. This was an easy partnership between fourth graders learning Alabama history and seniors learning government. So this gave us the opportunity to put all of the stuff they read about in books and we really got to see it come in real life on the floor today.”
The House passed the bill by Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Montgomery, by a vote of 103-0. It moves to the Senate.
Before the vote, several lawmakers praised the project and said it was a good learning experience for the students.
The legislation takes note of the importance of peanuts and pecans in Alabama agriculture.
“The peanut was elevated to its current status by landmark agricultural scientist George Washington Carver’s research at Tuskegee Institute, later renamed Tuskegee University,” the bill says.
Alabama ranked second nationally in peanut production in 2021, when more than 1,000 Alabama farm families grew more than 622 million pounds, according to the bill. The peanut is designated as the official state legume of Alabama.
Alabama is one of 15 states that produce pecans. More than 500 farmers grow pecans on more than 8,000 acres to pecan production. The pecan is designated as the official state nut of Alabama.