July 2021 TPT Member Magazine

Tomme Beevas started serving his food to people in the Twin Cities in 2012. He opened his Nicollet Avenue location back in 2016. | Credit: Maren Machles

Members of the Green Garden Bakery team gather to plant new vegetables for their summer baked goods. | Credit: Maren Machles

Seeding change with the Green Garden Bakery

“I don’t know how to put the word ‘powerful’ into a feeling, but [it’s felt] sad and powerful seeing everyone come together, but for sad reasons,” Allen says.

On a Thursday evening, just a little less than three miles north in the Sumner-Glenwood neighborhood, members of the Green Garden Bakery pull old roots from the soil of their community garden containers. With gardening gloves, rakes and a few shovels, the group makes room for the flowers and herbs that will decorate and flavor their desserts. The Green Garden Bakery (GGB) is a youth-run, community- focused enterprise — employees are 12 to 18 years old. The money that the organization makes gets split up into three buckets: One-third of the money pays the workers; one-third gets reinvested into the community; and the last third goes to a charity of the group’s choice. D’Loveante Allen joined GGB when he was 12, painting the compostable boxes that package the baked goods. At 17, he’s now thinking about where he wants to go to school and dreaming about different career aspirations. Given his experience with GGB, he’s currently set on sales. Allen says that GGB helped him break out of his shell: The more he was able to talk to people through sales, the more confidence he gained.

“Because somebody died,” Grady adds.

GGB not only makes room for young people to have their thoughts and voices heard in the business, but it also provides nourishment for the community. In August 2020, GGB created the Community Crew in response to the pandemic. The Community Crew uses revenue from the bakery and donations to operate food pantries and to deliver supplies to those who need it. “That’s one of the highlights, is when I do something, I can see the result of it. So let’s say I give food to someone, I see that right then they’re happy, they’re eating,” Allen says. In 2020, GGB halted in-person sales at the Minneapolis Farmers Markets, switching to online ordering only. But this year, they can be found selling paint-splattered compostable boxes filled with veggie-packed desserts at the Midtown Farmers Market on Saturdays.