Online Cookie Cooperative

— Cookie Cooperative + Research Lab” — A Partnership of God’s Little World & The Society of St Vincent de Paul (Phoenix, AZ)

  1. 🍪 Executive Summary

    1. The Opportunity

    Chronic financial stress and homelessness rob people of income and intellectual agency. Rooted in Catholic social teaching—and echoing Pope Francis’ call for “miracles of cooperation”—this pilot turns a simple pleasure (baking cookies) into a twin pathway:

    • Economic dignity: member-owned cookie sales generate weekly cash.

    • Research literacy: each batch doubles as a mini–behavioral study, giving co-op bakers hands-on research skills they can later apply to local issues like housing, food access, and re-entry.

    2. Model at-a-Glance

    Component How It Works
    Recruitment & Training Weekly visits to the SVdP dining hall (200+ guests/night) invite participants; pastry-chef mentors teach commercial-kitchen basics and intro-to-research workshops.
    Co-op Ownership Teams co-own production, decision-making, profit-sharing, and study design. No personal capital required.
    Cookie Research Lab Every recipe is paired with a research question (e.g., “Do late-night snackers prefer salty-sweet?”). Members design surveys, run tastings, and analyze results with BCHRI guidance.
    Online Sales Channel Cookies sold via a branded e-commerce site; customers can opt-in to short “cookie polls,” feeding the data set.
    Radical Transparency Public dashboard lists batches baked, study topics, anonymized findings, revenue, and member payouts.
    Profit Distribution After kitchen fees, 100 % of net proceeds return to bakers each Friday via direct deposit.

    3. Why This Works

    • Zero-Barrier Entry — no credit checks; talent over transcripts.

    • Gospel-Rooted Community — hospitality meets cooperative ownership.

    • Built-In Research Training — survey design, ethics, data analysis—taught with cookies, then applied to homelessness and health questions the community chooses.

    • Scalable & Replicable — any diocese with a certified kitchen can adopt the template.

    • Digital Accountability — open ledger and open-data summaries meet donor and IRB standards.

    4. Pilot Timeline & Targets

    Milestone Date
    Recruit first 10 members & draft 5 cookie-research questions Summer 2025
    Launch e-commerce storefront & publish first data snapshot Fall 2025
    Break-even on ingredient costs; first full profit payout within 90 days
    Release “Cookie Report #1” + prep second-city replication kit Spring 2026

    Year-one goals: train 30 co-op bakers–researchers, sell 10,000 cookies, publish 3 community-designed studies, and distribute $75,000 in earnings.

    5. How You Can Help

    Partner Type Need
    Pastry Professionals 2 hrs/month for recipe testing & food-safety coaching
    Research Mentors / Universities Guest-teach survey design or data visualization
    Donors & Foundations $30 k seed fund covers first-year ingredients, packaging, and web hosting
    E-Commerce / Logistics Firms Discounted shipping, packaging design, or inventory software
    Parishes & Schools Pre-order cookie gift boxes for holiday fund-raisers (supports both profits & data collection)

    “The miracle of cooperation is a team strategy that opens a gap in the wall of an indifferent crowd that excludes the weakest.” — Pope Francis

    Join us as we bake—and study—justice into every batch.
    🔗 www.GodsLittleWorld.com  📍 Pilot Kitchen: St Vincent de Paul, Phoenix, AZ  ✉️ info@GodsLittleWorld.com

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