Englewood community resource center broken into, burglarized, organizers say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A community center on Chicago's South Side was the recent target of a break-in and burglary, organizers told ABC7.

For years, the community center has been a safe haven for families in an area that often sees crime. Now, the center itself has been targeted.

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Shattered glass and multiple broken doors pale in comparison to the hurt feelings left behind.

"I feel violated, you know" said Tamar Manasseh, founder of Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings. "Somebody comes into the place where you feel safe, the place where you offer for kids to come to feel safe, and they steal things and break things."

Manasseh founded MASK, and over the years, ABC7 has covered the group's efforts at 75th and Stewart to provide food, job training, education and other resources to children and families in Englewood.

"Everybody around here knows that if they need something, you need only ask," Manasseh said. "You don't have to steal anything. We'll just give it to you for free."

Manasseh says Monday morning the group discovered its community resource center, which is housed in three trailers on a formerly vacant lot, had been broken into. Missing were diapers, toilet paper, electronics and multiple freezers full of food that feeds children after school.

"We are dinner for a lot of these kids," MASK volunteer Jermaine Kelly said. "Standing out here and me telling these kids we couldn't feed them today because of everything that was going on, one of the kids literally asked his sister, 'What are we supposed to do now?'"

Manasseh says in the wake of recent rule changes governing SNAP benefits, demand at the center is at an all-time high.

"We won't quit on these kids," Manasseh said. "We won't be the people that make those kids lose faith in adults and in neighbors and in people who say that they care."

Manasseh says she has not filed a police report, though the damage and loss total in the thousands. She says the center is restocked and is reopening to families Thursday.

Information about donations for Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings can be found on their website.