This bakery brings second chances, hope and life skills to its employees

Workers at The Village Cookie Shoppe in Long Beach receive a sense of community and trust along with mental health services.

There’s a bakery on Long Beach Boulevard where the recipe for success consists of one ingredient: compassion. 

The Village Cookie Shoppe offers freshly baked cookies, cakes, breads and brownies for customers with a sweet tooth Monday through Friday. For its employees, it offers a sense of security, personal growth and a helping hand to those who need it. 

Workers at The Village Cookie Shoppe are members of the Mental Health America of Los Angeles’ (MHALA) employment program. Founded in 1924, MHALA has grown over the last 99 years to provide a wide range of services to people struggling with mental health issues. 

Along with its employment program, MHALA offers housing assistance to those experiencing homelessness, psychotherapy, medication management, substance abuse services, family services and youth and veteran-focused outreach. 

The Village Cookie Shoppe hires people referred by MHALA who are unemployed, but ready to join the workforce and teaches them valuable skills such as budgeting, multitasking, product development, shipping, delivering, and of course baking. All workers at the bakery are paid during their three to five months of employment. 

After gaining work experience at the shop, more than 80% of employees go on to find part or full-time employment within the community, according to MHALA. 

As of now, the handmade baked goods are available for pick-up only and must be ordered ahead of time. The shop is soon planning to take its operations one step further by moving into a sit-down cafe to further the real-world work experience for its employees. 

Kevin Palacios, executive chef of The Village Cookie Shoppe for the past nine years, trains each person who comes into the shop and has been witness to the changes that occur within the people working there. 

“It’s night and day when they first come and tell when they leave,” Palacios said. 

Palacios said he works with an average of 24 employees a year, and sometimes doubles as a therapist along with his job as executive chef. He said the first month of someone’s employment usually consists of building a sense of trust and community where the topic of mental health is not used “as a crutch.”

Palacios will often bring out his guitar—which he keeps handy in his office—and has relationship-building conversations with his employees. As someone who was previously homeless and struggled with his own mental health, he’s keen on how important trust is in creating a difference in someone’s life. 

It’s also the cornerstone that The Village Cookie Shoppe is built on. 

“That’s the key: relationships. That’s everything in life, having a good relationship with yourself and with others,” Palacios said. “It really builds communication, it builds trust, it builds vulnerability, it feels it builds humility, gives you hope.”

Palacios said many of his former chefs often visit the shop or send him texts to let him know how they’re doing. 

“It’s like I’m a father to 150 kids,” Palacios said. 

And the numbers for The Village Cookie Shoppe continue to grow. Palacios said that during his first year at the bakery, they fulfilled about 600 orders during the holidays, a.k.a. “cookie season.” Last year, they received over 17,000 orders of cookies, brownies and loaves of bread during the same timeframe. 

Palacios attributed some of this growth to the fresh products and unique recipes offered at the shop. Customers can choose from zucchini, banana or blueberry bread; chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter or cranberry white chocolate cookies; and dark chocolate brownies at an affordable price. 

Residents can order baked goods from The Village Cookie Shoppe online for pick-up at 1955 Long Beach Blvd. Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some orders are available for delivery.

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