After a series of break-ins at the Salvation Army in East St. Louis this year — leading the social service provider to temporarily shut down its food pantry — leaders are hoping volunteers can help restore the location.
Thirteen break-ins over the last several months have left the Metro East location with 15 shattered windows, a handful of broken doors and trashed rooms.
The decision to close the food pantry, which serves an estimated 60 people per week in East St. Louis, wasn’t easy, said Salvation Army Capt. Kenneth Jones.
“This is a resource that the community needs,” Jones said. “Some families depend on these resources every week and every month. I knew that if we shut it down, it meant that we would have to deny those people those services.”
In hopes of restoring the location and eventually reopening the food pantry, the nonprofit is hoping a plethora of volunteers can help clean up the warehouse at 616 North 16th St. in East St. Louis from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
The break-ins started in January. The Salvation Army shut down the food pantry this spring after an irritating back-and-forth “game of tag,” Jones said. After each break-in, Jones would fortify a window to prevent another break in — only for the looters to find another way into the building.
Eventually, he said the building smelled “like a dead animal” because canned goods had been thrown against the walls and windows and had been left to rot.
In the meantime, families that used the pantry have been able to use the Salvation Army’s other location in Belleville.
While the motivation of those that broke in isn’t exactly clear, Jones said some youth took some of the pantry’s food and used their basketball hoop, which left him frustrated.
“If I would have seen them driving or riding past, I would have easily said, ‘Hey, would you guys like some of this stuff?’ That's why we're here,” Jones said. “We're here to meet human needs without discrimination and preach the gospel.”
As someone who grew up making use of the Salvation Army’s pantries in Detroit, Jones said he understands the need for food — especially in a community like East St. Louis that is a food desert.
“We want to provide them access to food and nutrition,” Jones said. “We just want to do it the right way.”
Omega Psi Phi, a historical Black social fraternity, will assist in this weekend’s cleanup. R3 Development, a religious nonprofit that runs a youth employment and development center in town, has been helping board up the windows.
Donations are also welcome to replenish some of what was stolen.
Jones said there hasn’t been a break-in since early August, which has him hopeful they can put this chapter to bed. While it will be a lengthy process to prove to grant providers and other agencies the location can host a pantry with perishable foods, Saturday’s volunteer cleanup will be a good place to start, he said.
“It’s a time where we’ll be able to see the fruit of the support from not only the organizations we’ve been partnering with, but the community as well,” Jones said. “It’s a time for us to all come together and say, ‘Hey, we care about this space. We care about this place and the resources that it will provide the community — and we want to do something about it.’”
