Thieves steal two vans from food charity
FINANCIAL IMPACT MASSIVE SAYS BOSS AS DELIVERIES TO NEEDY ARE CANCELLED
A FOOD charity has had two vans and equipment stolen after its warehouse was broken into.
Surplus food supermarket The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT) was raided by thieves on Saturday at about 7pm in Trafford Park.
Thieves broke into the warehouse and stole the keys to the organisation’s four vans.
The thieves then drove way with two of the vans, ripping out their tracking devices.
On Monday, the two vans were found abandoned in Farnworth, Bolton. They need their tracking devices and keys replacing.
TBBT, which has only just launched a hub in Moss Side, works on a system where members pay £7 for a bag of fresh food that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
Without the vans, staff are unable to deliver food to each of the organisation’s 20 hubs across Greater Manchester.
On Monday, planned sessions in four hubs, including Ordsall and Collyhurst, had to be cancelled.
Renee Salter, 46, who works at TBBT as an community organiser, said: “That’s over 250 families on Monday alone that we couldn’t serve.
“My concern is if they’ve put their money aside for a bag of food and that was supposed to serve them for a week, what are they going to do now?
“They can’t get that amount of food for the same amount of money at a supermarket.”
The thieves also stole five electronic tablets, worth more than £4,000, which are used by staff to take orders from customers.
She added: “This is potentially going to be quite hard, it’s such a young business, we’re just trying to think about what we can do.
“We’re a charity, we’re not a big chain that has fleets and fleets of vehicles.
“It’s just disgraceful really that people can do this sort of thing.
“I just think these people haven’t looked at the wider impact. It isn’t just a van, it’s the difference between delivering a service to people that need it and not.” Renee said that staff will be doubling up on shifts to ensure the remaining hub sessions planned for this week still go ahead so that families can still buy food.
She said that each van can tend to hold enough food for around 100 families, so the impact of being down on two vehicles is huge.
“The financial impact on such a young business is going to be massive,” Renee added.
“Stealing from their own community, and probably from people they know – why on earth would they do that?”
Anyone with any information should call police on 0161 856 7747 or 101 quoting incident number 468 of 23/09/2019, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
To find out more about how you can sign up for The Bread and Butter Thing in your area, or how to volunteer, visit: breadandbutterthing.org Renee Salter