Amy Chasan started Sweet Generation as a passion project in 2009, baking from her tiny home kitchen, while she worked full-time for the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development. There she was able to support and develop some wonderful academic and enrichment programs, but lack of funding plagued the programs and every year budgets were cut significantly. As her work became more challenging, Amy turned to baking as her own personal creative outlet. What started out as a pet project quickly evolved into more than just a hobby. Before she knew it, she was being hired to cater weddings, showers, art events and celebrity parties. She began to think about how she could connect her creative outlet with her education and her professional career in youth development.

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In 2014, Sweet Generation developed RISE - a youth internship program for the bakery that would provide job training, hands on kitchen experience, and educational support for at-risk young adults. SG started working with youth in a private commercial kitchen space used for production before a retail space was acquired. The scope of this program continued to grow after tremendous success with the first cohort of youth interns.

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In January of 2015, Sweet Generation opened its doors to its first storefront located in the East Village of NYC. Since then, Sweet Generation has established a reputation as one of the best new bakeries in NYC. In fact, Sweet Generation was awarded “Best Cupcake” in NYC by the Village Voice, which is a huge endorsement in this cupcake-saturated city! Sweet Generation has also recently been featured on ABC’s The Chew and have had several appearances on Bravo TV’s reality show Blood, Sweat & Heels. Sweet Generation has also been featured by DKNY, Elite Daily, The Village Voice, Time Out, Bedford & Bowery, Eater, and DNA Info. 

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Sweet Generation is now a team of fifteen, and RISE has served over 60 young people.

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