For young people in Minneapolis, Cookie Cart offers more than a job
MINNEAPOLIS — Walking into the Cookie Cart on Broadway in north Minneapolis, Quentin Moore and Johnny BLESSED are hit with two things: the fragrance of fresh cookies, and nostalgia.
"It's a return home for me in many ways," Moore said.
"When I came in this door, I was like, 'Oh my gosh! What is going on?' It just brought me back memories," BLESSED said.
Both say memories from one of their first jobs — at the Cookie Cart — flooded back.
"We currently have a waitlist of people who want to work at our bakery," Cookie Cart Executive Director Jacquelyn Carpenter said. "We are very blessed with employees of today and tomorrow. Not a lot of employers can say that."
Not a lot of employers center their workforces around young people either, but that's what the Cookie Cart is all about.
"We are really helping to foster the spirit of confidence, responsible compassionate accountability," Carpenter said. "It's those soft skills, or those interpersonal characteristics, that help build a great citizen, or neighbor or employee in the future."
Its bakery is a classroom; combining paid work experience with workshops to promote career and leadership development for youth.
"It's not about what we're doing today, it's about where those people will be tomorrow," Carpenter said.
That tomorrow is seen in the eyes of its alumni: Moore's servant heart working in philanthropy and BLESSED's leader attitude.
"It's really about the people," Moore said. "It taught us so much. You had to be tenacious, you had to be confident. All those things. Grit, tenacity, you show up."
"It's not only me, it's all of us. We are all a team here," BLESSED said. "Let's make it happen. I don't think about it, let's just do it. Let's go."
It's similar skills teens today are now learning through mixing, baking, and decorating — discovering they already have the ingredients for success.
"Truly the secret ingredient is the young people," Carpenter said. "When we are helping young adults find their inherent value, tap into their full potential, that's joy."
Joy that sticks with them long after the baking days are over.
"It's a ripple effect, right? You learn these things here foundationally, but they impact you as a parent, they impact you as a team leader or an employee and then just how you engage with community overall," Moore said.
"We're so much more than a bakery," Carpenter said. "So much more than a first-time job."
To learn more about Cookie Cart, click here.
