Next time, Valley Outreach staff will be more careful.
After word spread that a bright orange table and four blue chairs had been stolen from outside the Stillwater food shelf over the weekend, a donor stepped forward Tuesday and offered to replace the set.
The table and chairs were put up March 1 to draw attention to the social service agency’s latest “Feed a Family” food drive and to promote the Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign, said Tracy Maki, the nonprofit’s executive director.
Staff are planning to take extra precautions with the new set. “We’re planning to put eye bolts in the individual pieces and wire them to the bike rack out front, which is chained to a tree,” Maki said.
The original set “lasted only five days,” Maki said. “This was not a small table; it could fit six chairs around it. Somebody thought about this and had two or three people … plus a vehicle large enough to haul it all off.”
In 2015, thieves stole socks and underwear from outside the agency that were meant to draw attention to a clothing drive.
“We’re not trying to be cute for the heck of it. We work hard to highlight that not everyone is doing OK,” Maki said. “More surveys and studies show an increase in suburban poverty, and we are not immune to the trends.”
Valley Outreach, at 1901 Curve Crest Blvd., serves more than 3,800 people a year.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the Stillwater Police Department TIP line at 651-351-4945.