Sabathani Community Center Is Feeding Its South Minneapolis Neighborhood during COVID-19, and You Can Help
Minnesotans are stepping up and making a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I want to make sure people know about all the organizations out there doing great work and helping during this crisis and beyond. I’m profiling a different nonprofit each day to share their information and their story.
In 1966, community residents and members of Sabathani Baptist Church in South Minneapolis were concerned about the lack of adequate recreation facilities for kids in their neighborhood. To address this, they organized to form Sabathani Community Center, currently led by my good friend Mary Merrill as interim executive director. While it initially had a singular goal, its success soon led to an expansion to answer the community’s requests for more direct services, including those around basic needs. As it grew, Sabathani operated in a number of locations in South Minneapolis until 1979, when it was able to purchase the former Bryant Junior High School building as its permanent home thanks to a large outpouring of community voices and organizing efforts with the city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Schools.
Today, Sabathani serves as a hub for programming and community services. It provides basic-needs services to stabilize families, academic enrichment and youth development after school and during the summer, a health resource center, senior programming, and so much more. It also serves as a home for other community organizations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sabathani Community Center has closed all operations with the exception of its food shelf and essential workers. From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, the food shelf is providing prefilled grocery bags to those in need. This is a wonderful organization that continues to do good work during this trying time. Head on over to the center’s website to learn more about its services and how you can support them with a donation.
Sabathani Community Center
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About the Author
Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan has been collecting and reading for over 45 years, has seen nearly every comic-book movie and most cartoons, and is a fount of obscure superhero knowledge that would make Dwayne McDuffie smile.
