People standing outside Saints Teresa and Bridget Roman Catholic Church in North Central St. Louis are more likely to smell cookie dough than incense. Angel Baked Cookies, a small cookie factory, calls the church home. Factory operates by having local teenagers work to prepare cookie orders for various stores, cafes and schools in the St. Louis area.

Saint Louis University is now one of the schools that receive cookie orders prepared by Angel Baked Cookies.  The cookies will first appear on campus Thurs. Nov. 11 in Fusz Food Court and the C-Store in DeMattias Hall. These locations are currently the only dining facilities to offer the cookies

As of now, SLU only carries the company’s chocolate chip cookies, but may expand to include other varieties depending on student demand.

The idea to carry Angel Baked Cookies at SLU was proposed by sophomore Scott Hessel.

“They mentioned that Angel Baked wasn’t being sold at SLU… It seemed like such an obvious way for SLU to live out its mission,” Hessel said.

Angel Baked Cookies is an enterprise of North Grand Neighborhood Services.  The program started three years ago by Father Gary Meier and three teenagers.  This program was started with the ideology of giving teenagers in the area an opportunity to develop work skills and experience.  Today, the program has 12 teenagers on staff.

The company gives the teens an opportunity to work towards promotions, as Lor? Moore, one of the original teenagers, is now Assistant Manager.  She is proud of all she has accomplished with this enterprise

“Angel Baked is my life,” Moore said.

Teens work at Angel Baked Cookies from Monday through Thursday preparing cookies. In addition to cookie preparation, the teens spend time in prayer and discussion before they start their work day.

Jesús Figueroa, Angel Baked Cookies Program Director expressed that the bakery’s operating hours are designed to keep teenagers busy during peak times for getting into trouble.

“From 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. are the riskiest hours because parents are not back from work and you’re lingering around,” Figueroa said, “It’s good to have a safe space here so that you can forget about what’s happening outside.”

Moore expressed that students have used Angel Baked Cookies as a springboard to finding jobs elsewhere, and some have even gone off to college. These results are what inspired Hessel to encourage Paul Taylor of Billiken Dining Services to offer Angel Baked Cookies at SLU.

“[Angel Baked Cookies] is getting the youth involved in a project that gives them good skills,” Taylor said. “They can take the skills that they’ve learned and they can apply them to their livelihood as they go on in life.”

When Hessel and other students met with Taylor to propose that SLU carry Angel Baked Cookies, Taylor agreed immediately.

“It fits in perfectly into SLU’s offerings. Angel Baked fits into our community involvement goals,” Taylor said.

While Angel Baked has grown already, those involved have aspirations that the program will continue to evolve and flourish. When asked about the possibility of expansion, Moore said that her biggest hope is to one day open an Angel Baked Cafe.  Figueroa said that Angel Baked has set a goal to do this in five years.

This goal will only be aided by the increase in cookie purchases, something that Hessel emphasized the importance of.

“It’s simple for us.  It’s a significant step for them,” Hessel said, “With the business that SLU will be doing, they will have the opportunity to help more teenagers.”