A north Minneapolis food shelf that has served thousands of families — including many newly arrived Ecuadorian refugees — is closing this week while it sorts out its tax-exempt status.
Camden Collective will shut down most of its programming, including a weekly food distribution, on Saturday, June 29. The food shelf has already supported more than 25,000 people this year and was on track to surpass last year’s number by nearly 20%.
The organization’s founder and director, Anna Gerdeen, said she made the difficult decision to close after the organization became stuck in a bureaucratic limbo of nonprofit filing issues that eventually led it to lose its tax-exempt status in December. She said only learned of the revoked status in mid-March.
“I feel like it’s a family. You build relationships when you see people week after week. It’s going to be hard,” Gerdeen said. “It’s going to be a loss for the community, and not just [because of the] food. It was a gathering place.”
Gerdeen announced the decision in an emotional speech in English and Spanish on June 23 during the weekly food shelf hours. An estimated 190 families received food that day.