St. Paul nonprofit has catalytic converters stolen from ‘foodmobiles’

A nonprofit in St. Paul has had to cancel its recent food distributions after the catalytic converters on its vehicles were stolen.

Keystone Community Services says the catalytic converters on both of its “foodmobile” vehicles were taken over the weekend.

“We’re doing everything we can to get them back on the road quickly, but unfortunately, all of our Foodmobile distributions are cancelled until further notice,” the nonprofit said in a Facebook post.

Mary McKeown, the president and CEO of Keystone Community Services, said Apple Valley Ford repaired one of the foodmobiles on Wednesday but they’re still working on getting parts for the second one.

McKeown said the vehicles were parked in a gated lot at Midwest Special Services when the catalytic converters were stolen.

“Whoever cut these off clearly didn’t care that they were impacting low-income people in our neighborhood,” McKeown told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

She also noted the thefts come at a time when their food distribution work is particularly important, noting “people are struggling to keep up” with rising prices and only turn to them when they’re really in need.

Keystone Community Services hopes to get funding to build a garage on University Avenue — which could open as soon as next May — if the Legislature approves its funding request.

Additionally, Keystone said its Rice Street food shelf is closed this Thursday and Friday for deep cleaning and volunteer training but will be back to regular hours on Monday.

Anyone in need of food support is being directed to Keystone’s Midway food shelf at 1916 University Avenue West.

Saint Paul Police confirmed the thefts to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Wednesday afternoon.

More information is available online.