A new free grocery store opened Tuesday in Maplewood, offering greater assistance to Minnesotans who may otherwise struggle to afford groceries.

About 20 people were lined up Tuesday morning as they waited for the opening of the new store Today’s Harvest, which is located in a former grocery store at 1740 Van Dyke St.

“It’s very convenient for me, and it helps to save, especially since I’m a single mom,” said Chee Yang, 38. “It’s hard with groceries prices always being so high.”

Today’s Harvest is run by the Minnesota food bank Open Cupboard, which also operates a free store in Oakdale. As Yang and others waited for the Maplewood store to open, state politicians and Open Cupboard employees wrapped up a ribbon-cutting event inside with workers scuttling around the store to get it ready for its first customers.

Unlike food shelves, Today’s Harvest allows shoppers to pick out what items they wish to take home. It also allows those who don’t wish to disclose their personal information or income level to shop anonymously. Whereas food shelves typically ask for one’s name and address, Today’s Harvest customers only have to provide the number of people in their household and their zip code.

The markets help reduce food waste by obtaining food from stores that is close to expiring but is still safe to eat. The shops include open trays with fresh produce as well as refrigerators with meat, dairy and other products. The refrigerators and freezers each have a sign at the top indicating how many items a customer is allowed to take during their visit.

Jessica Francis, executive director of Open Cupboard, said in her speech Tuesday the market anticipates providing food to an estimated 700 households each day. She described Today’s Harvest as a place catered both to those who struggle with food insecurity, and those who may need temporary assistance as they experience a short-term financial struggle.

“If they hit a bump in the road or they have a crisis, they can lean on us a little more heavily for a little while, until they get back on their feet,” Francis said.

According to federal court filings, Carlson, serving 17½ years after being found guilty of 51 felony counts in 2013, suffers from medical issues including cancer and dental decay. His confinement to an apartment in the Twin Cities, along with his twice-weekly check-ins at a Roseville halfway house make his situation “extremely challenging,” documents cite him as saying.

Carlson’s charges included conspiracy, misbranding drugs, distributing a controlled substance and making illegal monetary transactions. Medical experts testified at his trial that the criminal activity at the downtown store that regularly drew lines of people created a slew of consequences: It created a public health crisis and dramatically increased narcotic-related police calls, emergency room visits and fatalities.

The Last Place on Earth sold “spice” and “bath salts,” and customers testified at trial they caused hallucinations and heart palpitations. After the store closed, St. Luke’s hospital said its analog drug-related emergency room admissions dropped from about 75 patients monthly to fewer than four.

Carlson served about nine years of his sentence at a low-security facility in Michigan before he was released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The 67-year-old said in a motion he filed that he must take two buses and walk a mile as part of the journey to the halfway house, describing the trip as “insurmountable” in winter and plagued by “extreme heat and air quality issues” in the summer.

The office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger wrote in opposition of Carlson’s request, saying that a reduced sentence would not reflect the seriousness of Carlson’s crimes.

“For years, he sold destructive analog drugs that caused users to experience harmful side effects and caused severe disruption to Duluth’s health care and law enforcement services,” the filing reads. “And Carlson made millions doing so.”

Investigators say at least a dozen of the Feeding Our Future defendants “owned, received money from, or were associated with autism centers that received state money for EIDBI services.”

According to DHS, Minnesota companies made 15,720 claims in 2017, billing Medicaid $1.7 million, of which $1.3 million was paid. Those numbers have since exploded, growing nearly 23,000% from 2017 to 2023, when over 1 million claims were filed and nearly $400 million billed, but only about half that was paid out. This year is on pace to post similar numbers to last year.

In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Kurt Beulke wrote that the investigation “has found substantial evidence that many of these companies have been submitting fraudulent claims for EIDBI services that were not actually provided or that were not covered by the EIDBI program.”

Smart Therapy Center received about $13.8 million in Medicaid reimbursements for the autism program between 2020 and 2024, and Star Autism has received more than $6 million since it began operating in 2020, according to the search warrant.