Heartless thieves steal from charity
VOLUNTEERS who create food hampers for the city’s most desperate people will not let the weekend’s burglary deter them from continuing their work for the community.
Loaves and Fishes Street Meet Care Service’s Toowoomba depot in Newtown, which turned away customers on Saturday after thieves broke into the building and stole a significant amount of cash, will reopen today.
Executive assistant Ann Kelly said the incident wouldn’t stop the staff and volunteers from helping other families.
“Too many families rely on us for us to be closed.”
Ms Kelly said she had never seen an incident like this before.
“If you’re in need, this is not the way to go about getting help.”
She said the dedicated volunteers who ran the not-for-profit store were just there to help others.
“It’s really not fair to them,” she said.
“If they (the perpetrators) needed help, they should have come and asked for it.
“The spirit of our volunteers is they want to help.”
Kylie Jennings, who manages the not-for-profit store with her husband Michael, said the incident filled her with “hurt and disappointment”.
“It’s a charity shop – I can’t believe someone would steal from our charity,” she said.
“We were unable to open our doors, we had people who needed hampers and we had to send them away.
“We couldn’t let anybody in – we had to turn 20 cars away because it was a crime scene.
“I’m more hurt and disappointed (than angry) that somebody could do that.”
While the damage to the roller door, office door and wall safe is likely to be covered by the owner’s insurance, Mrs Jennings said the cash stolen could’ve bought food to feed more than 100 people.
“The majority of our stock comes from Food Bank, we buy it by the pallet,” she said.
“We get at least 100 pallets a week, plus we feed the homeless two days a week,” Ms Jennings said.
“We get no assistance, we use whatever stock we’ve got.
“It wasn’t an extreme amount (of cash), but it was enough to buy six or seven pallets of food to feed a couple of hundred people,” she said.
The organisation is on such a tight budget that it can’t afford CCTV cameras, which would have helped to catch the thieves.
Toowoomba Police confirmed they were still investigating the incident, which occurred late on Friday.
Apart from cash, no other items were stolen during the burglary.
Anyone with information about the burglary should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.