10 minute read
BUSINESS
Gilbert home-based cookie business a sweet success
BY SYDNEY MACKIE
GSN Staff Writer
Despite opening her cookie business during the most severe months of the pandemic, Debbie George has found serendipitous success selling products out of her Gilbert home’s industrial kitchen.
George’s company, The Cookie Mill, specializes in highly customizable vanilla bean sugar cookies sold for approximately $4.50 each. Since opening in January 2019, The Cookie Mill has found its clientele in both Gilbert’s local families and the town’s many businesses.
“I put a mother’s love into each cookie, so I pretend like the recipient of each cookie is a child of mine and that’s how I decorate the cookies. Even when I’m the mom of an organization, I just really absorb the occasion,” George explained.
An avid lifelong baker, George has always adored making sweets for her family’s special occasions but only found the motivation to transform her hobby into a business once she began helping her daughter sell pastries.
“Back in 2018, we went to a decorating class, then she started selling cookies right away and I helped her for that first year. I bought her the first mixer, helped decorate cookies and package them around Christmas time, just supporting her as a mom would do,” George recounted.
Soon, though, her daughter would have to focus on education and family while George dedicated herself completely to this culinary passion.
“I sold my house in Mesa in December 2019 to move to Gilbert because it just really felt like the best family community that we have here. What I’m trying to say is it just feels like a Gilbert company, decorating cookies and eventually my goal is to have a storefront here so that people can come in and decorate their own,” said George.
As a one-woman operation, George’s earliest challenge came during her first Valentine’s Day rush.
Now, George has perfected her holiday system to handle the needs of her rapidly expanding customer base.
“I’ve done over 22,000 custom cookies in the last 18 months and people love the soft bite along with the royal icing,” she said.
“I think they come to me for the design and creativity, and many people have said that they can really feel the love in these cookies because what they don’t realize is when they’re describing the occasion I’m taking copious notes on name, dates, color and the overall feeling of an event or the recipient.”
Growing from 150 customers last Christmas to 500 has required some serious home improvements, however. George hasn’t hesitated to make serious investments and changes to her home to complete orders seamlessly.
“By April, I needed to upgrade so I bought a new Bosch mixer, I bought a cookie oven and put the residential oven and stove in the garage. Then, it was October or November of last year that I had to get rid of the couch and the living room to put stainless steel tables in there and now I’m at the end and the freezer is on the patio because there’s just no more room inside,” she said. George isn’t satisfied with just using the best equipment possible, she also firmly believes in only incorporating the best ingredients and safety precautions into her recipes.
“I don’t use generic anything. I could buy a 25-pound bag of restaurant and hotel flour for $7 but I choose to buy King Arthur unbleached flour because it really translates in the taste and people appreciate that,” George said.
Each product from The Cookie Mill comes individually sealed and for customers with gluten allergies or intolerance, George carefully sanitizes tools and tables while segregating these special gluten-free batches.
Though her kitchen’s sanitary precautions such as constant mask and glove use haven’t lifted, George is excited to
Debbie George runs a cookie business right out of her Gilbert home’s industrial kitchen
(Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)
Debbie George said a mother’s love is an important ingredient in all her cookies. (Pablo
Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)
GILBERT SUN NEWS | AUGUST 8, 2021
Gilbert student finds rewarding internship
GSN NEWS STAFF
Gilbert resident Christina Fisher is getting some real-life work experience in the electrical and construction industry.
Fisher is one of 65 students from 35 colleges and universities across the country who is in the internship program run by Rosendin, the electrical contracting industry’s largest employee-owned firm.
Rosendin’s internship program gives college students real-world experience in project management, estimating, safety, Building Information Modeling, IT, finance, and marketing while paving the way for further career development.
Fisher is a senior studying digital and integrated marketing communications in Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey
Christina Fisher
School of Business.
She is a marketing Intern at Rosendin’s Tempe office creating and executing social media campaigns for Rosendin and The Rosendin Foundation.
“When I was searching for a summer internship, I was looking at many different industries. Once I learned about Rosendin’s Culture of Care, I knew I wanted to intern there,” said Fisher.
“This internship has taught me that social media in the construction industry is primarily used as a recruitment tool and to engage employees,” she added, noting the posts with the most traction involve employees and their successes.
There is so much to learn and many people here who can teach you no matter your position,” she said.
Fisher’s internship will last 12 weeks at Rosendin’s Tempe office, one of 17 regional offices nationwide.
“She will explore her career path, gain valuable job experience, fulfill university fieldwork requirements, and grow her professional network,” a company spokeswoman said, adding that a mentor will help her address marketing opportunities and challenges in the construction industry.
“Rosendin is serious about recruiting the brightest young minds and growing them into future leaders, like Christina. We look for students from all backgrounds because having a diverse pool of interns brings new perspectives to our teams and strengthens our company,” said Salina Brown, Rosendin’s director of marketing. “I am pleased to welcome Christina to our team, and I look forward to seeing what she’ll accomplish.” Rosendin frequently recruits ASU students through campus career fairs and recruiting events.
Rents get too high for low wage earners, study finds
BY EMMA ASCOTT
Cronkite News
Full-time minimum wage workers can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment in any state, according to a recent report from affordable housing advocates, and with housing costs skyrocketing in Arizona, many workers are struggling.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report, those workers in 93 percent of U.S. counties can’t afford a one-bedroom, either. In Arizona, workers would need to put in 73 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental. Excluding weekends, that’s 14.6 hours per day. Still, that’s better than the national average of 97 hours per week, the report said. The report defines affordability as the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. Workers would need to earn $24.90 per hour for a two-bedroom rental and $20.40 per hour for a one-bedroom. The average hourly worker earns $18.78 per hour, and the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, unchanged since2009.
In 2019, 13.5 percent of Arizonans were living below the federal poverty level of $25,750 (for a family of four), compared with 10.5 percent nationally. This year the federal poverty level is $26,500.
Even under the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers, the report said, and addressing the long-term housing affordability crisis in this country requires increasing rental assistance to all who need it. In Phoenix, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,449 – a 12 percent increase over July 2020 – according to Zumper, which analyzes active apartment listings.
“In most places, $15 an hour isn’t a living wage, the Rev. Dr. William J.
Special honor
Jan Newton, owner of Nothing Bundt Cakes at 2285 E. Baseline Road, Gilbert, had some good news for her staffer, Emily Beymon, a 2021 graduate of Gilbert High School: Emily won a $5,000 Sunflower Scholarship from Nothing Bundt Cakes Co-Founder Dena Tripp. Newton, said Emily has worked at her bakery for the last two years and is heading to community college. “She is an awesome young woman and we are extremely proud of her,” Newton said. Information: 480-892-1667.
Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, told Cronkite News. “But it’s more than double where the floor is now. And we know that when you lift from the bottom, everybody rises. So we say $15 an hour now, and index it to inflation so that the wage floor will rise with the cost of the things everyone needs to survive.”
Although raising the minimum wage to $15 would help lift people from poverty, American workers deserve more, said Allynn Umel, national director of the Fight for $15.
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he told Cronkite News in an email. “$15/ hr is the bare minimum that workers anywhere need to survive, which is why fast-food and other essential workers have been out in the streets marching and shouting for $15 for nearly nine years, including McDonald’s workers in Phoenix just this week.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, is part of “a bipartisan working group negotiating a raise in the federal minimum wage, and is currently working with Senator Mitt Romney to craft bipartisan legislation,” her office told Cronkite News.
In March, Sinema voted no on a provision for an incremental raise toward
COOKIES from page 19 bring her cookie classes and parties to the public as Arizonans return to normalcy due to a rise in vaccinations and declining rates of COVID-19 cases.
“People love to decorate cookies and I make it really easy for them to do that and have an amazing time. The class is a a $15 minimum wage. Her office noted her past support for “an indexed minimum wage in 2006, and supported the voter-approved state minimum wage increase in 2016.” While Sinema gave a thumbs-down, Kelly gave a thumbs-up.
Arizona’s minimum wage stands at $12.15 per hour, but advocates say it’s far from sustainable for the average worker.
Leaders of Fight for $15 said workers have waited too long for a raise, and they’ll continue to strike and march in the streets to demand that lawmakers and employers hear their demands and guarantee a wage they can survive on.
But there could be drawbacks to a $15 an hour minimum, experts warn.
Any attempt to remedy the situation with significantly higher minimum wages will benefit some while others will find fewer available positions or hours reduced in their positions, according to Dennis L. Hoffman, professor of economics at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
little bit different, the class is for people who really want to know how to do it, like the techniques and the recipes and how you make a successful cookie; the parties are just for fun,” George said.
Inquiries for both cookie orders and class or party reservations can be found on The Cookie Mill’s website alongside countless samples of George’s previous work.
“My cookies tell a story and you just can’t get that in a store-bought cookie,” George added.
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