Berry met Sims, now 58, when she was in fourth grade, and then Sims became her full-time fifth-grade teacher. As the young girl moved on to high school, Sims moved there too. The two bonded over a ritual they called "cookie talk" that would become a mainstay in Berry's life: Sims would invite the young girl to her home to bake cookies, which in fact meant baking, bonding and blunt talking.

"If I am not involved in the process, cannot call independent references, cannot personally interview the candidate, etc. then I will stop wasting my time going to cookie talks and breakfasts and you should not pretend that I share responsibility for the choice," Giroir wrote to Cross March 16.

Lunch isn't served here. Just cookies, along with nourishment for the soul.

"When you bring cookies, then you have a cookie talk, so others can benefit from what you tell them," says Pastor Rod Anderson, who gets the two-hour meeting rolling about 11:30 a.m.