Break-in at UniverSoul Cafe in Del Paso cripples food recovery operations
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Burglars stole over $100,000 in kitchen gear, supplies and equipment Saturday.
- The incident disrupted food recovery, meal distribution, and youth job programs.
- Mack launched a fundraiser and seeks a new warehouse to resume operations.
Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon last Saturday, UniverSoul Cafe owner Tonya Mack drove to her business to pick up items for Turnip the Beat, a family food festival in the Del Paso Heights area.
When she arrived on July 12, shattered glass lay on the ground from broken windows, and what was once a space that served more than a million meals to Del Paso Heights residents began to resemble a “junkyard,” said Mack.
“Just demolished,” Mack said. “The electrical panels were all taken down. All of our offices that were locked had all been broken into, and it just looked like everything was missing and turned upside down. It’s devastating and it has crippled us.”
UniverSoul Cafe was founded by Mack in 2019 and turned food surplus from local hotels and restaurants into meals for families in need across the Sacramento area. The business also brings meals to seniors, those who are homeless and those living in nontraditional housing communities.
The break-in wiped out years of investment in addressing food equity across Sacramento. Pop-ups, t-shirts, chef jackets, sound equipment, lighting, a washer and dryer, black stones, commercial kitchen equipment and office supplies totaling more than $100,000 were taken. Some items were purchased, others donated.
As of Thursday, Mack continued to wait for a callback from her insurance company and filed a police report but has yet to receive an update from law enforcement.
Through a partnership with the Young Gents, the cafe also provided workforce development and employment in the culinary arts to young men from North Sacramento. Now, the program’s future is unclear.
It aches my heart because we are having to replace items just to do food recovery, which cuts down the number of hours we can offer our student workers and young chefs, Mack said.
Amongst her staff, Mack said, were overwhelming feelings of disappointment.
“We are self-made, self-built and a lot of the young people that we employ live in District 2 and are from the neighborhood,” Mack explained. “So it’s just very hurtful to them and those that we feed.”
Mack and impact strategist Andru Defeye have created a GoFundMe and are on the hunt for a new space to call home. Specifically, they are looking for a warehouse space that will allow them to store the food and equipment they have to acquire and to host their classes.
Her dream place of relocation? A party supply turned warehouse behind Harley-Davidson of Sacramento off Arden Way.
“It would feel like Christmas or Kwanzaa if we could get our hands on that warehouse,” Mack said. “We need a warehouse that’s large enough for us to open our doors and offer people the dignity of choice to come and get food out quickly.”
In the short term, Mack said the business will continue to push past the setback and continue pushing food out to the community. She is confident that neighboring residents will understand that the company’s survival is in their hands and is looking excited to begin putting feet on the ground and rebuilding.
“We are bruised, but not broken,” Mack said. “We may need a few days to recoup and figure out how we move forward, but we will not leave the folk that we’ve been feeding unfed. This work is bigger than any one company, and it takes all of us to make this happen.”
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 4:38 PM.