How Volunteers Cleaned Up Minneapolis After George Floyd's Death

Originally published 2020-05-31.

On Saturday 30 May 2020, after several nights of fires and looting that followed the police killing of George Floyd, hundreds of volunteers poured into the streets of Minneapolis and Saint Paul with brooms, shovels, trash bags and boxes of groceries. People of every background, Black, white, Somali, Latino, Asian and Native American, swept up broken glass, painted over graffiti, boarded up shopfronts and set up food drives for neighbours whose local stores had burned. Many of them had seen calls for help on social media the night before.

This is the story of that clean-up, the people behind it, and what it showed about how communities respond to crisis.

Why the Twin Cities needed cleaning up

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was murdered on the evening of 25 May 2020 outside Cup Foods at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, after officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Bystander video of his death sparked protests the next day that spread across the United States and then the world.

In the Twin Cities most protests were peaceful, but between 26 and 30 May there were also severe riots. On the night of 28 May the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct station was overrun and set on fire. Damage was concentrated along a five-mile stretch of Lake Street in south Minneapolis and along University Avenue in Saint Paul's Midway district. By mid-June the two cities counted more than $500 million in damage to about 1,500 properties, with nearly 100 buildings in Minneapolis destroyed. Federal investigators tracked 164 arson fires.

Governor Tim Walz imposed an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on both cities from 29 May and eventually activated more than 7,000 National Guard troops, the state's largest deployment since the Second World War.

Brooms and food drives on 30 May

The morning after the worst nights, residents and people from across Minnesota arrived on the damaged streets. Minnesota Public Radio reported volunteers on East Lake Street, on University Avenue and in the Midway, picking up trash and helping business owners clear debris. Many of the hardest-hit businesses were small, immigrant-owned shops and restaurants, the kind of places that anchor a neighbourhood.

Community volunteers help clean up the damage at Ethiopian restaurant Addis Ababa on East Lake Street in Minneapolis. #GeorgeFloyd #Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/ZlEQXTGvHE

— Caroline Yang (@yangfoto) May 30, 2020

(This post is no longer available on X.)

Photojournalist Caroline Yang documented volunteers helping at Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian restaurant on East Lake Street, and a community food drive in North Minneapolis. With pharmacies and grocery stores closed or destroyed, food became an urgent need almost overnight, particularly for older residents and families without cars.

Community food drive in North Minneapolis. #Minneapolis #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/C2IIhE0RBe

— Caroline Yang (@yangfoto) May 30, 2020

(This post is no longer available on X.)

Churches, schools, mosques, breweries and community groups turned into drop-off points for groceries, nappies and hygiene supplies. MPR's list of aid sites that week included Sanford Middle School in south Minneapolis, where long lines of people brought donations, as well as organisations such as Pillsbury United Communities, Vietnamese Social Services and the Division of Indian Work. In Saint Paul, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Midway asked for blankets, produce and baby supplies.

In my neighborhood. Volunteers by the dozen are cleaning up debris and broken glass along West Lake Street. But I would advise people to avoid driving in the area. It is gridlocked with cars. pic.twitter.com/aXzMtZ64Uz

— Brandt Williams (@BrandtMPR) May 30, 2020

MPR reporter Brandt Williams described dozens of volunteers clearing glass from West Lake Street in his own neighbourhood, and warned that so many people had turned up that the roads were gridlocked.

Marvin Applewhite and the clean-up fund

One of the faces of the effort was Marvin Applewhite, a Minneapolis resident who started a GoFundMe page to pay for clean-up supplies and to help small business owners who had lost their premises. He also asked for as many volunteers as possible to join him. "Lots of work needs to be done and I'm willing to lead and get it done," he wrote on the fundraiser.

The page reportedly raised close to $50,000 within its first days. Clips and photos of Applewhite and his crew spread quickly, partly because they offered a different picture from the one dominating television coverage.

Marvin Applewhite cleans up Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd https://t.co/BLzmRCzVQd

— 94.3 WYBC (@943WYBC) May 30, 2020

Everyone’s talking about people looting and distorying buildings why is no one talking about Marvin Applewhite and his crew raising money and cleaning up the community of Minneapolis while all of this is going on (Marvin Applewhite on the left) pic.twitter.com/FIwsQ4mAn1

— Nick Sibley (@nick_sibley1) May 30, 2020

https://t.co/Akz2HkpbMP@marcuslemonis here is a great man who is doing the clean up effort in Minneapolis. #Minneapolis #marvinapplewhite #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

— Laura Beth (@LauraBeth4You) May 31, 2020

(This post is no longer available on X.)

In every chaotic, hazardous, menacing, and unsafe circumstance in this world, if you look hard enough, you'll find a hero. Google Marvin Applewhite.#herovibes #wecanallbeheroes https://t.co/mg5cBfIn41

— Restoration Heroes (@Rheroes911) May 30, 2020

Comments left by donors show what the effort meant to people. Sharma Affeldt wrote: "We have a lot of work to do cleaning up the Twin Cities- both literally and figuratively." Another donor, Kerry Kendall, struck a hopeful note: "I believe the world CAN change, one person at a time." Many others used the page to express anger at police violence and at racism, making clear that clearing debris and demanding justice went hand in hand.

Repair and protest are not opposites

It is easy to frame the clean-up as the "good" side of the week and the protests as the "bad" side. Most volunteers did not see it that way. Clearing a street lets a pharmacy reopen; a food drive feeds families whose shops are gone; neither replaces the demand for accountability that brought people out in the first place. Many who swept glass in the morning marched in the afternoon.

Researchers who study disasters have long noted the same pattern after floods, earthquakes and fires: ordinary people tend to respond with cooperation rather than panic, and informal neighbourhood networks often move faster than official agencies. The Twin Cities response fits that picture. Volunteers came from mixed neighbourhoods and distant suburbs, from faith groups and from mutual-aid networks, and for many it was the first time they had worked side by side.

How to help after unrest in your own community

If something similar happens where you live, the lessons from Minneapolis are practical:

• Follow local organisers. Business associations, churches, mosques and community groups usually know which streets and families need help most.
• Ask before you clean. Business owners may need photos of damage for insurance before anything is moved.
• Bring the right kit. Thick gloves, sturdy shoes, masks and heavy-duty bags matter around broken glass and burned buildings.
• Check fundraisers. Give to campaigns run by people or groups you can verify, and look for updates on how the money is spent.
• Think beyond the first weekend. Rebuilding takes years; small businesses need customers long after the volunteers go home.

What came after

Rebuilding Lake Street took years, helped by fundraisers such as the one run by the Lake Street Council for small businesses and nonprofits. The legal case moved more quickly. On 20 April 2021 a jury convicted Derek Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On 25 June 2021 he was sentenced to 22½ years in prison, and in July 2022 he received a concurrent 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights.

The images of broken windows from that week are well known. The pictures of neighbours with brooms and grocery bags deserve to be remembered too.

Sources: MPR News: Volunteers flock to Twin Cities to clean up protest-torn streets; Wikipedia: George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul; Wikipedia: Derek Chauvin; Marvin Applewhite's GoFundMe clean-up page (May 2020); embedded posts by Caroline Yang, Brandt Williams (MPR), 94.3 WYBC, Laura Beth, Nick Sibley and Restoration Heroes on X.