Since 1999, Andrea Thomas has served as the executive director of Mount Olivet Lab School and Nourish Food Shelf in St. Paul. During the pandemic, Thomas launched the Lab School Kids Cafe, the first and now the last remaining Kids Cafe in St. Paul. She also founded Nourish, a food shelf for the Frogtown/Rondo community. Nourish has become an essential resource, distributing 40% of all the food provided by food shelves in the neighborhood, offering an average of 60 pounds of food per family per visit. Its open-door policy allows unlimited visits without appointments, filling a crucial gap left by the closure of other food shelves. Over the past four years, her leadership has facilitated the distribution of nearly 1 million pounds of food through close to 15,000 household visits, benefiting approximately 60,000 individuals.