Minneapolis Yoga Studios Shift to Serve Urgent Community Needs During Raids

Violence and intense immigration-enforcement activity in the Whittier neighborhood pushed several Minneapolis yoga studios to convert classrooms into community lifelines, offering supplies, volunteer rides and other practical support to neighbors in need.

At an 8:30 a.m. Saturday class at Yess Yoga on 26th Street, as students settled into Savasana near the end of the hour, the teacher said, “Oh no, oh no, oh no.” That moment crystallized a broader pivot: studios stopped teaching and started serving urgent needs. Yess Yoga, located at 105 E 26th St, has been collecting and distributing diapers, wipes and formula, and staff and students report that some families have limited how often they leave home out of fear of enforcement. Yess can be reached at lucia@yessyogastudio.com and (507) 429-4374.

Minneapolis Yoga organized a grocery drive and launched a volunteer rideshare program so students who feel anxious about walking or driving alone can carpool to class. Owner Melissa Sargent said, “We have a diverse community, and unfortunately, we haven’t been seeing some of our regular people lately. That affects how our studio feels. We’re missing some people.” Those shifts reflect both immediate crisis response and months of quietly expanding studio roles as enforcement activity increased.

Community-focused nonprofits and long-standing studios supplied structure for the response. Yoga Sanctuary, founded in South Minneapolis in 2012 by Shelley Pagitt, frames its work around accessibility and relationship-building. The organization states, “Yoga Sanctuary is a place where you can ‘come as you are’ with no pretense or prescription for how you show up. A place where 'all of you is welcome’, your mess and your marvel. A place where people know your name and care about your life. ... A place to SHARE YOGA, SHARE LIFE, and SHARE PEACE.” One Yoga, a 501(c)(3) organization with a long record of sliding-fee programming and market partnerships, lists its current location at 2637 27th Ave S, Ste 207, Minneapolis, MN 55406 and phone (612) 872-6347. The Mill City Farmers Market’s Market Yoga program provides seasonal free classes in partnership with neighborhood studios, illustrating how regular outreach models can be scaled in a crisis.

For readers, the practical takeaways are clear. Studios are already functioning as distribution points for basics like diapers, wipes and formula, and some are coordinating volunteer logistics for grocery deliveries and shared rides. At the same time, attendance patterns and neighborhood safety concerns are reshaping class schedules and the feel of local studios; some students have stopped attending altogether and others are stepping into volunteer roles, such as escorting children to school.

Photographers captured scenes inside and outside a building on or near 26th Street on the day of the raids; photo credits go to Deb Girdwood and Elisabeth Pletcher. Expect studios to keep adapting: check studio contact lines and social channels for updated hours and offerings, and watch for community-led drives and rideshare sign-ups that may expand as neighbors seek support.