Dark Clouds Silver Lining Volunteers at Cookie Cart 2018
There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than doing good works in our community with fellow Minnesota soccer supporters. On August 11th, Dark Clouds Silver Lining partnered with Cookie Cart in Northeast Minneapolis to help in the bakery and provide some career advice for their staff of energetic teens.
Cookie Cart’s mission is to empower North Minneapolis teens and provide them safe place to engage with their community. Not only do these kids earn a paycheck in a professional work environment; they also receive classroom training that will set them up for further successes in their adult lives. This nonprofit urban bakery provides a platform on which to build a full professional skill set.
During our shift in the bakery, we donned aprons and hairnets and got straight to work portioning the Double Chocolate Chip dough with the staff. It smelled as great as you’d expect. The kitchen was clean and orderly, and it was obvious that this was a great place for their staff to cultivate a positive work environment.
While there was plenty of fun to be had in the bakery, it was even more gratifying to sit down and hear what these kids aspired to do once they left Cookie Cart after high school. Within the group we talked with, there were aspiring writers, teachers, computer programmers, and more. The teens were very eager to engage and ask us questions. I hope that the variety of professional backgrounds found within our Silver Lining volunteers provided some helpful insight for these young professionals.
That’s the beauty of Cookie Cart; during each staff member’s many months of employment, they get to converse with people from all different sectors of the workforce, all while on the clock earning a paycheck. Cookie Cart has even expanded into Saint Paul to further their mission in other areas of the metro. Dark Clouds Silver Lining is proud to have played a part in their cause, if only for a day.
We owe a very special thanks to Cookie Cart’s Volunteer Senior Manager Hope Lockett, whose efforts in making this all go smoothly was nothing short of phenomenal. Thanks, Hope!
Of course, no good deed goes unrewarded. This time around, Boom Island Brewing Company hosted us for a lively gathering after our we hung up our aprons for the day!
To me, the MNUFC supporters experience is not complete without these types of events. We’re more than a matchday party.
I’d encourage you to get involved with our charitable efforts if you’ve yet to do so. Subscribe to the Dark Clouds newsletter to stay up to date on all Silver Lining happenings.