Thief steals nonprofit's huge grill from downtown Minneapolis parking lot
MINNEAPOLIS – It's a massive grill that gets fired up to feed to the community, and for free.
But a crook with a heart of coal ripped it off, and rolled it right out of a downtown Minneapolis parking lot.
Melanie Snyder is the executive director of INVOLVE MN.
"We serve just over 8,000 meals per week out of our kitchen, 365 days a year," Snyder said.
It was just three years ago that INVOLVE MN started with a smaller goal to give out 10,000 lunches over six weeks during the early days of the pandemic.
"When COVID hit, all the kitchens shut down everywhere. Food shelters, food banks, everything shut down. Well, people still needed to eat out on the streets," she said.
It's a mission they continue to this day. In the warmer months, they set up street-side food service with a huge grill in places like the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis and near light rail stations.
"We've fed hundreds of people at one time using that grill, and it draws attention and it draws people closer and it creates a community within itself," said Ethan, INVOLVE MN's homeless outreach coordinator.
Snyder says sometime between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, their grill was stolen from a parking spot behind the Woman's Club of Minneapolis in downtown.
"It was a custom-built grill for us that a donor purchased. So it's worth about $10,000," she said.
"We have some plans to do some barbecues and spring fling stuff for a lot of the shelters out here in Minneapolis and in St. Paul, so it was kind of a shock and definitely a disappointment," Ethan said.
The nonprofit says the setback won't stop them, but they're hoping whoever took the grill finds it in their heart to bring it back.
"If anyone sees a Holstein grill with white graffiti on the side, it's probably ours," Snyder said.
Anyone who spots the grill is asked to call police. And the organization says they are accepting donations of money and food to help their mission. They say you can also donate your time to help those in need.
