(File image). Photo: 123RF
An Auckland food bank is asking for help to fill the cupboards after it was emptied by thieves who cut a hole in the wall to gain access to the building.
The Glen Innes food bank has been running for 20 years and its manager Ian Furlong told Morning Report this was not the first time they had been targeted.
"The aim [of the food bank] is to help people in the community who are experiencing severe financial hardship ... we rely on donations from food from generous people and organisations and then to find that some scumbags have come along and robbed us, it seems to be pretty diabolical to me."
Glen Innes food bank emptied by thieves
The food bank gave out about 30 food parcels every week and Furlong said discovering the robbery was a nasty shock.
The thieves got inside by lifting some cladding from the back wall and then ripping a hole in the wall where the heat pump unit had been installed, he said.
Furlong said most of what was taken was frozen meat, biscuits and confectionary.
"If they had come to us and said they needed food, we would have given them food anyway.
"There was no need to go through and take it by wrecking the place and costing us a lot of money, thousands of dollars in fact, in repairs to the building."
While the food bank did have insurance, they still had to pay excess.
Furlong said luckily several weeks ago a Givealittle page was set up and some people had been "very generous".
"We're very hopeful that we can get other people to donate to Givealittle and that will help us fix up some of those repairs and replace some of the food that's gone missing."