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When President Barack Obama visited Iowa two months ago for an Earth Day event in Newton, he took a couple dozen Baby Boomers Cookies home with him on Air Force One.

The feel-good chocolate-chunk cookie, which Obama and his family made famous during the presidential campaign, has gained a global following of loyal customers, say the East Village company’s owners. Baby Boomers, which a year ago sold about 100 of the cookies a week, is now turning out more than 50,000 hand-baked cookies a week at the Bake Shoppe in Windsor Heights, where it leases bakery space.

“It’s all about having fun and being friends; that’s a big part of it,” said Michael Wolnerman, who in January partnered with the cookie’s creators, Tom Magnani and Rodney Maxfield, to launch Baby Boomers Cookies LLC as a stand-alone company. “Let’s face it, what company wouldn’t want their product to be loved by the first family of the United States?”

Magnani and Maxfield opened Baby Boomers Cafe more than five years ago at 313 E. Locust St., which during last year’s campaign became a meeting place for Obama and his team.

“It’s changed our lives completely,” Maxfield said of the hefty three-ounce, 240-calorie treat, which he and his partners reverently refer to as The Cookie. “No matter where we go, we’re going to be known as the Cookie Guys, the Obama Boys.” After having The Cookie proclaimed Des Moines’ official cookie last week by Mayor Frank Cownie, Maxfield seemed positively giddy. “We’re just trying to keep grounded,” he said.

Notable Iowans who love the cookies include Gov. Chet Culver, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Congressman Leonard Boswell and other elected officials, along with many of the area’s TV news anchors and weathercasters. Shawn Johnson is also a fan, the owners said. In the business community, Bruce Kelley, president and CEO of EMC Insurance Cos., enjoys the cookies.

“He’s a huge Republican guy, but he said sometimes you have to break the barriers and have a Democratic cookie,” Wolnerman said. “But it’s not a Democratic cookie or a Republican cookie or an Independent cookie; it’s just a wonderful cookie.”

Even Warren Buffett has been seen munching on Baby Boomers Cookies in front of 32,000 shareholders during his company’s annual meeting. They’re sold at the Broadmoor Market in Omaha.

The entertainment world loves them, too. Black Entertainment Television placed a large order recently for an awards presentation in Los Angeles hosted by Jamie Foxx. “They’ll be giving away 300 gift bags with iPhones, Louis Vuitton wallets and purses, perfumes and colognes, and Baby Boomers Cookies are going to be in each of those gift bags,” Wolnerman said.

The cookies sell for $9 a dozen at the cafe or $11 online.

Baby Boomers Cafe, which has prospered from the cookie’s popularity, will move this fall to a new 3,000-square-foot location on the ground floor of the E5W Building at the corner of East Fifth and Walnut streets. It will be open seven days a week and have seating for 72.

“It will have the same diner feel, same menu, but we’re also going to have a market in there where we’ll sell milk, eggs, cheese, bread, just the real simple staples,” Maxfield said. “We’ll also have a cookie kiosk in there, where we’ll also sell T-shirts. And of course, we’ll serve milk to go with the cookies.”

The company is taking a three-pronged marketing approach, Wolnerman said, with the diner being one of the keys to the cookies’ success.

“I think that’s a huge component of it, that we have a local presence,” he said. “And the other thing that’s very important is that we also have a Web site (www.babyboomerscookie.com), so we are able to send (cookies) all over the country and all over the world. We’re upgrading that Web site as we speak, so that will change soon.”

Additionally, the cookies are available at many of Greater Des Moines’ supermarkets, among them Dahl’s Foods, Hy-Vee and Gateway Market, as well as in many coffeehouses. The retailers are left to their own discretion how to display and price the cookies.

“We’re still working through that with them,” Maxfield said. “We don’t want to tell somebody else how to be distributing their cookies. We encourage them to put them up front, that they’re probably best in a big display right up front. Those stores that have taken our advice on that have been hugely successful. The stores that have said, ‘We’ll take a few of the cookies and put them in the back by the bakery’ have been hugely unsuccessful.”

Handling the production volume hasn’t been a challenge, but ensuring that the quality of each cookie remains high is a concern, Maxfield said.

“The challenge has been just making sure people still enjoy the cookie and feel the cookie the way we feel the cookie,” he said. “I don’t ever want to lose that feeling; it’s like Christmas morning and how excited and giddy you feel.”

Wolnerman, who works as a pharmacist, may have gotten the ultimate compliment on the cookies. A pharmaceutical representative who didn’t know his connection to the company brought him a gift last week. A dozen Baby Boomers Cookies.