Mother's Love, YMCA Step Up To Help In Sudden North Minneapolis Grocery Drought
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Thursday in Minneapolis' Near North neighborhood, the community banded together to help those in need in the wake of the unrest that followed George Floyd's death.
Dozens gathered in the Cub Foods parking lot on West Broadway Avenue. The supermarket was looted last week, and is still closed -- creating an enormous and food and grocery desert in the area.
The event was led by the group Mother's Love in the effort to provide those supplies, because Cub Foods is more than a grocery store on the north side.
"We're making sure that they have diapers and formula for their babies. Making sure that they know where the … nearest pharmacy they can get their prescription filled at," said Donna Morris of Mother's Love. "Cub Foods is the only grocery store besides Solo Foods, and it's much smaller, and [the only option for] this community for, at least, for five miles."
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They gathered to get through life, and to get through it together.
"We have heard from several of the residents in the community how thankful they are that we are here giving them what it is that they need, because they don't have access to it right now," Morris said,
Down the street sits the Harold Mezile North Community YMCA Youth & Teen Center. This is where much of the distributed food will find its way as a distribution point.
Rich Melzer grew up in the city and spent 11 years in professional basketball. He's back on the north side, and he's helping the YMCA provide a beacon of light.
"I mean, we're doing so much right now, it's honestly tough to articulate, but it's probably the most meaningful work I'll ever be a part of, and I think it's some of the most interesting and dynamic work the Y's ever done, and it's a long history," Melzer said.
On Thursday, at least some were able to stop and take a breath, and maybe even enjoy life for a minute.
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