Angel Baked Cookies…and a Cookie Contest

There is a nonprofit in St. Louis called Angel Baked Cookies that you need to know about. Here’s how it works:

Angel Baked Cookies is a nonprofit business in North St. Louis that makes and sells delicious cookies. It is staffed by a team of teenagers (after school) paid hourly and trained in business skills like making sales pitches, evaluating orders, preparing dough, baking, and packaging by a few adult staff members. It relies currently relies on a grant to stay open, but the more cookies they sell every week, the closer they come to their break-even point of charitable independence.

I LOVE this model for a charity. I love that it has the potential to be self-sustainable. I love that those who it benefits the most–the teenagers in a very rough neighborhood where more than 50% of kids drop out of high school–are actually working, learning these important life and business skills firsthand. I love that the nonprofit actually produces something tangible…something that just happens to be delicious.

This is a place worth supporting. It even benefits you personally if you live in St. Louis. My car got stolen a few years ago and was taken for a joyride by some kids from North St. Louis (fact, not speculation). I’d much rather have those kids learning off the streets, out of trouble, learning how to be personally responsible for their lives. Wouldn’t you? Angel Baked is doing that for you.

So if you like cookies or you own a restaurant that serves dessert or you have a party or a wedding coming up, buy Angel Baked. You’ll be helping so many people simply by buying some delicious cookies.

That brings me to the contest. Last year I wrote a blog entry on “The Great Wedding Registry Debate.” It was a popular, heavily debated entry, and I’ve decided that I want to get some definitive answers about the circumstances in which you should buy wedding presents and how you should determine the amount you spend.

Thus I have a new survey. It’s 10 questions and will take under a minute. As an extra incentive for taking it, next Thursday I will randomly draw a name from those who respond (and those who refer the survey to others) and will send the winner a gift bag of Angel Baked cookies (pictured above).

In fact, I’ll draw a name for every 25 people who respond to this survey–I want to get a critical mass of people for conclusive answers. So forward a link to my blog to everyone you know who likes cookies and has ever been to a wedding (please send the link to my blog and not the survey, as the point of this is for people to learn about Angel Baked cookies). I’ll ship cookies to out-of-towners on my dime, no problem.

9 thoughts on “Angel Baked Cookies…and a Cookie Contest”

  1. Great post, Jamey! We’ve had Angel Baked Cookies for multiple business meetings, and not only are they delicious, but they are helping these teenagers and the community as well. There’s a great multimedia presentation on the St. Louis Review website:

    https://stlouisreview.com/article/2010-10-07/angel-baked-cookies

    You can see photos of the teens and hear their voices, which really brings it all to life. I’m glad you did a blog about this organization!

    Reply
    • Wow, my blog just got its butt kicked by the St. Louis Review. That’s a much more effective presentation of the benefits of Angel Baked Cookies. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
      • No, no, your blog was great! 🙂 I didn’t mean that! It had just crossed my mind that I had seen Angel Baked Cookies online and in the paper recently. Your blog is reaching a lot of people, and you gave your own personal thoughts on the organization – so hats off to everyone who’s involved in spreading the word! 🙂

        Reply
    • John–Really, no story. Just the previous blog entry where I thought people were going to say that it’s fine to not give a gift if you travel for a wedding, and not a single person agreed. So I wanted to create a comprehensive wedding etiquette guide that has nothing to do with my opinion. It’s all about the critical mass.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to The Great Wedding Gift Debate Survey Results – jameystegmaier.comCancel reply

Discover more from jameystegmaier.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue Reading