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Staff and volunteers at the Gathering Place were cleaning up from breakfast Thursday morning when someone walked by and threw a brick at their front window, destroying more than $1,000 in food and supplies.
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“It sounded like someone hit the window and then you could hear the tinkling of glass breaking before it shattered,” said Mackenzie Vermette, cook and kitchen helper at the city’s soup kitchen.
Witnesses say the incident occurred around 10:20 a.m. Police had arrived by 10:30 to view video footage the Gathering Place had captured on one of its surveillance cameras.
“He looks familiar, but I don’t have a name. I’m pretty sure he’s a regular. I served him breakfast,” Vermette said, adding the suspect has a tattoo on his face.
Executive director Dennis Chippa said there were several boxes of produce harvested from the Gathering Place garden off Algonquin Avenue that will have to be put into the garbage.
“The boxes of produce were sitting on a table right beside the window that was destroyed. We also have to discard boxes of containers because there are shards of glass in them too,” he told The Nugget.
More than 30 bags of breakfast items that were going to be distributed to the Gathering Place’s outreach program will also have to be tossed out.
Chippa said the brick used to smash the window came from brick work on the side of the Gathering Place’s building.
He said a glass company has been called to get the window replaced and it is being boarded up until it can be repaired.
“We’re not a business that can shut down. We have to stay open,” Chippa said, as he helped staff and volunteers clean up the mess throughout the dining room in the building.
“It’s completely unreasonable. He’s not mad at the Gathering Place, he’s upset at whatever is going on in his life, but unfortunately we’re the target.”
Clients of the Gathering Place who also witnessed the incident helped clean up the mess outside.
As passersby walked by lining up for lunch, they seemed concerned about the damage and whether food was still going to be available.
Chippa reassured everyone that the soup if on and volunteers are making sandwiches.
“Bagged lunches will be offered out the door today,” he said.
North Bay Police are investigating.
Window smashed at Gathering Place - Sault Star
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