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Cooking up a sweet future

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

November 19, 2007

Sweet Things Bake Shop profits benefit the Lower East Side Girls Club (Kyle Erin Schmitz / November 19, 2007)

Valerie Galindo discovered her entrepreneurial calling at 14 years old, while laying icing on a freshly baked shortbread cookie.

"It's my signature pastry," she smiles, reflecting on her early days at the Cookie Academy, an after-school program for teenage girls offered through the Lower East Side Girls Club.

Galindo now finds herself closer to her culinary aspirations. The 22-year-old has returned to the Cookie Academy as a teacher and works part-time at the Sweet Things Bake Shop, a social venture business operated by the Girls Club. All profits from the Sweet Things Bake Shop go back to the youth organization. Galindo plans to attend professional culinary school and eventually, open her own pastry shop on the West Coast.

Since 2000, the Cookie Academy has been a place where many young girls get their first whiff of entrepreneurism.

The eight-week program provides "on-the-job" career training, teaching "all aspects of running a small business, professionalism and the essentials of baking and culinary arts," says Adriana Pezzulli Newman, who¹s worked with the Girls Club for the past eight years.

The curriculum includes everything from how to work a cash register to understanding overhead costs. Girls are paid a $100 stipend at the end of the program with the option of applying for a part-time job at the Sweet Things Bake Shop.

Head baker Amanda Zug-Moore tries to focus on mainly three issues with her students, the first being the importance of sanitation and how failing to follow the rules can have serious health and financial consequences.

"We wash our hands constantly and I remind everyone to wear hairnets," says Zug-Moore.

The other lesson she emphasizes is that everything they bake has related costs, including labor, marketing and overhead. "Those things aren't immediately obvious," she says.

Finally, the Cookie Academy teaches students that there¹s more to be in the culinary world than a chef. "I like to give a sense of the different jobs in the culinary world. You can own your own restaurant, be a food educator. Not everyone is a chef." Galindo, who grew up on the Lower East Side, says she¹s witnessed the Cookie Academy's enrollment grow rapidly, thanks to its many incentives.

The program is open to eighth graders and currently has a wait list. "A lot of younger kids want the chance, too," says Galindo. "But it¹s a little tough because of the oven."

Raising dough
The Lower East Side Girls Club is trying to become less financially dependent on grants. The group aims to raise 20 percent of its operating budget through "income-generating projects" like The Sweet Things Bakery at 136 Ave C between 8th and 9th streets.

This holiday, the bakery is selling baked goods, including brownstone gingerbread cookies for $5 each. Discounts are available for large orders.

The bakery is also selling tin gifts, like the City Winter tin which comes with one gingerbread brownstone cookie, a fair-trade organic chocolate bar and two snowflake butter cookies for $25 plus shipping. For more information, visit girlsclub.org or call 212-982-1633, ext. 108.