St. Paul’s Highland Park Food Shelf Reopens

Reposted from Pioneer Press

A recently shuttered Highland Park food shelf has reopened under new management, thanks to a quick cash infusion from the United Way, a family foundation and the Franciscan sisters who had run it for two decades.

Though many people think of Highland Park as an upper-middle-class neighborhood, they fail to see its pockets of poverty, said Armando Camacho, who runs the largest food shelf in Ramsey County. When the 20-year-old Francis Food Basket closed down at Sibley Manor, a 550-unit apartment complex that has many low-income residents, the community lost a lifeline for people in need.

“A lot of immigrants and refugees make (Sibley Manor) one of their first stops when they get established in St. Paul,” said Camacho, president of Neighborhood House, a St. Paul-based nonprofit organization. The Francis Food Basket, near the Sibley Plaza Shopping Center on West Seventh Street, last year provided 61,000 pounds of food to 1,900 households.

The food shelf and Clare’s Closet, a neighboring charity that offered clothes free of charge, closed their doors in June. Both were run by the St. Paul Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels, an order whose regional center in Highland Park closed in May.

Neighborhood House, a 115-year-old West Side organization, saw an opportunity. Camacho said that after “heavy fundraising,” his organization received $60,000 in support from the United Way, the Butler Family Foundation and the Franciscan Sisters, allowing the charity to reopen on Aug. 10.

Organizers are working closely with the Lumen Christi Catholic Church on Bohland Avenue for in-kind donations such as food and volunteers, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet played a large role in drafting Neighborhood House to take over the shuttered charity.

The food shelf is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. Clare’s Closet will not reopen. “We do not do clothing, so we decided that would not be within our mission, but the food shelf is right up our alley,” Camacho said. “Highland Park does not have another food shelf, so it’s needed. It’s a critical service in that area. There’s a high-poverty sector within that little corner of Highland Park that a lot of people don’t realize.”

Camacho said that Neighborhood House provides courses in English as a second language and other social services for recent immigrants, and families who use the food shelf will be referred to these programs as needed.