BRISTOL — Soup kitchens and food pantries abound these days to help supplement the diets of people having trouble making ends meet. Social service agencies request help on the pages of this newspaper, asking for donations of peanut butter, pastas, sauces, vegetables and other canned staples.

But, what about the fun, indulgent side of eating? Drop In & Decorate, a new Rhode Island nonprofit, is filling a niche in the sweets department.

On Sunday, June 14, Persimmon restaurant in Bristol hosted a Drop In & Decorate event. Owners Lisa and Champe Speidel hosted a crew of about a dozen and a half friends who showed up for a two-hour decorating blitz.

Drop In & Decorate helps anyone who wants to host a cookie decorating event — from the mechanics of making the cookies and icings to finding a group who would be happy to receive them. The cookies are brought to a program for the homeless or victims of domestic violence, food pantries, senior centers, or other groups in need.

The Persimmon staff baked 200 cookies ahead of time and made icings in a rainbow of colors that were placed into squeeze bottles with tips for easy application. The royal icing spreads beautifully, but hardens so cookies can be wrapped.

Lisa Speidel, who is on the board of directors at Drop In & Decorate, invited me to come and help. Lucia Watson, a board member and expert icer, demonstrated some tips on how to apply the icing and achieve cool design techniques by dragging toothpicks through different colors.

There was a wide array of cookie shapes — from a pig, cow and dinosaur to a pineapple, angel, clouds, lips, ice cream cone, foot, rocket ship, teacup and more. Some of the shapes were open to interpretation. An ice cream cone became a clown with a pointy hat when turned upside-down. A flipped cloud became a woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Two big posters with color photos of decorated cookies offered inspiration to us beginners.

The kitchen hummed with conversation, oohs and aahs over a particularly clever design, and claims of “I have no artistic talent” — but soon there were trays of colorful cookies piling up. We went from timid attempts to bold flourishes and brilliantly colored illustrations, some with multi-colored sprinkles.

“There’s no right way to decorate a cookie,” said Lydia Walshin, founder of Drop In & Decorate. Although, she said styles and icing colors differ around the country.

“Cookies make people smile,” Mrs. Walshin said. “Everyone has a childhood memory of cookies after school.” And, kids can relate when decorating a cookie for a needy child who is missing that experience.

And, there were lots of smiles. We all had a wonderful time, and discovered our inner artists. The two hours flew by and, suddenly, there were no more cookies left to decorate.

Anyone can host a Drop In & Decorate event. Most take place around Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, but Mrs. Walshin said it’s a way to hold a birthday party, or something moms can do with their children to teach them about volunteerism. Sometimes, a family volunteers to make four or five dozen cookies and drops them off at a local food pantry.

“And, when they’re delivered, there are smiles all around,” Mrs. Walshin said. “And, I can’t imagine anything better than that.”

The cookies decorated at Persimmon were individually wrapped, tied with curly ribbons and delivered to the East Bay Coalition for the Homeless.

“They’re fabulous,” said Diane Smith, the coalition’s executive director, after distributing some of the cookies. “The families were in awe. It was as if we were bringing them a party.”