Cookie Cart founding (1988)
Sister Jean Thuerauf began baking cookies with neighborhood teens in her North Minneapolis kitchen while helping them with homework. The informal effort became a formal bakery in 1988.
The bakery opened and began employing teens, growing to serve 100 by 2010.
Cookie Cart became a model for nonprofit teen employment, expanding to 200 teens after a 2014 renovation.
The Saint Paul location replicates the model that started in a kitchen: paid work plus life-skills training for teens.
