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 WINSTON-SALEM — Old Salem Museums & Gardens is offering a selection of Moravian cookies and Moravian stars for purchase online at oldsalem.org/shop. Proceeds from all purchases of these products directly benefit the preservation, restoration, and educational programming at Old Salem Museums & Gardens.

Ginger, sugar, lemon and chocolate sugar Moravian cookies are available for purchase online in 14-ounce tins. Moravian stars are available as 12-inch and 21-inch white plastic kits and are also available in punched tin (already assembled). The punched tin stars come in three finishes (antique, copper, and pewter) and three sizes (8-inch, 14-inch, and 20-inch). In addition, glass Moravian Star ornaments can be ordered online. Old Salem plans to add additional products soon.

“We have temporarily closed Winkler Bakery and our retail stores due to COVID-19,” said Franklin Vagnone, president and CEO of Old Salem Museums & Garden. “But we wanted to offer some of our most popular items online to make them available to customers. We have been working very hard to find ways to serve visitors despite the pandemic. We have launched projects to help our community like our Victory Gardens and bread baking initiatives and have created online and virtual programs to provide access to our resources. We are proud of Old Salem’s and MESDA’s innovative, proactive, and nimble response to the current pandemic. Purchasing some of our products is a way that you can support Old Salem while enjoying delicious cookies and Moravian stars.”

Since March 13, because of COVID-19, in lieu of serving traditional visitors in its interpreted museum buildings, Old Salem has focused on a variety of nontraditional virtual and outreach activities including:

• Creating a curriculum-based, online field trip series called Old Salem Exploratorium for elementary, middle, and high school students and schools, as well as parents teaching from home. To date, Old Salem Exploratorium has had approximately 90,000 views from 20 states.
• Turning the historic gardens into Victory Gardens to support local food banks and providing how-to videos to start your own Victory Garden. To date, Old Salem has donated approximately 2,000 pounds of produce to local food banks.
• Launching a “Baking Bread” program to provide 250 loaves of bread weekly and other baked goods to local food banks to help feed those in need. To date, Old Salem has donated approximately 4,000 loaves of bread to local food banks.
• Sharing History Nerd Alerts on social media, which is an educational series that uses Old Salem’s primary documents and artifacts to connect to the current events. To date, the History Nerd Alerts have generated approximately 380,000 views.
• Providing a one-stop space to find the best of MESDA, digitally, through MESDA 365.

In addition, since Old Salem Museums & Gardens is unable to provide the traditional interpreted experience, it has created the Study South initiative, a period of online and onsite study, research, and experimentation, which began in July and will run through December of 2020. To learn more visit OldSalem.org/StudySouth.