All Square

Background

All Square was founded in 2016 by Emily Hunt Turner, an attorney who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The group was founded through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $250,000 and was additionally funded by the Fourth Generation Fund and the Minneapolis Foundation in 2017. ⁴

All Square operates a craft grilled cheese restaurant, also called All Square, in Minneapolis. The restaurant employs cohorts of “fellows” that include individuals recently released from prison and jail. During the nine-month fellowship, employees receive $14 per hour as well as other services like “therapy sessions, professional development support, and access to funding opportunities.” ^{2 5}

In 2021, the All Square restaurant closed following the death of Randall Smith, the restaurant manager and a former participant in the group’s fellows program, in a shooting in downtown Minneapolis. ⁶ The restaurant reopened in early 2022 and announced plans to launch its “Prison-to-Law Pipeline” program to offer legal and paralegal degrees within two Minnesota prisons. ⁷

Activity

In addition to operating the restaurant and fellows program, All Square also runs a separate organization called Legal Revolution, which houses the group’s legal education and legal services programs. The group also calls itself “The Law Firm” and offers educational opportunities and externships for incarcerated individuals pursuing legal and paralegal education offered by All Square. ³  

The firm also provides “civil legal services to Pipeline participants, All Square Fellows and justice impacted Minnesotans.  These services include, but are not limited to, pardons, commutations, expungements, human services licensing and business formation support.” ³

The firm has announced plans to partner with other firms to initiate litigation promoting left-of-center criminal justice policy. ³

Since All Square opened its restaurant in 2018, it has reported providing “8 fellowships, $2.8 million in wages ($1.6 million of which has gone directly to formerly incarcerated Minnesotans), 400 therapy sessions, and more than $60,000 in micro-grants for seed capital and debt alleviation.” The funding for grants for the fellows was funded by the Minnesota Vikings NFL team. ^{2 5}

All Square has received funding from MacKenzie Scott as part of a $20 million grantmaking effort to Minneapolis nonprofits. ⁸