Frustrated charity workers discovered a key part of the foodbank and community space they run had been smashed up by vandals. Emmeline’s Pantry, who asked for their location not to be disclosed, had their community polytunnel, used for toddler groups and as a safe area for families, vandalised and broken into on Wednesday night (July 27).
The charity currently helps around 40 families a week through the foodbank but staff noticed that the polytunnel had been damaged and reviewed their cameras to see a group of three teenagers jumping a fence and vandalising the structure.
The charity have not released the CCTV of the teenagers, but staff say they are 'thoroughly disappointed' with the damage. Emmeline’s Pantry is more than a foodbank and also offers learning and play groups for babies and toddlers as well as a space for mothers and victims of gender-based violence to come to.
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Karen Wilson, a charity manager at Emmeline’s Pantry explained how the vandalism has affected the charity. She said: “It doesn’t look like much when you see the pictures, but to the service it is because it opens it up to germs and rats and all sorts and it’s a baby area.
“It’s a community space and I want people to be able to use it. But if people come in and damage it, we don’t want that to happen.
“It’s just that the children were bored, I’m not trying to disrespect them, but it was mindless. They jumped over the fence, kicked a whole in it and don’t realise the impact it has on people.
“It’s made us worried about other equipment. It stops you from wanting to develop the area further because of the risk of this happening, but we’re not going to let it. We’re doing things to benefit the community and we don’t want it stop us doing that, because that’s what we’re here for.”
“They tried the doors, couldn’t open it, and then one of them went and kicked a hole in it. We saw them on camera. They were only in for two and a half minutes, they jumped over the fence, caused the damage and jumped back over the fence.
“It’s really upsetting because it's a space for the community and the families who use that are families from the local community. Not just the local community, it’s an open toddler group.
“We offer what’s called a forest playground, so it’s an outside playground three times a week so families can come and use that space. It’s just upsetting to know that something of the community has been damaged."
Now, funds to repair the polytunnel will have to be taken out of the charity’s budget, cash that would have ordinarily gone towards buying more food for the foodbank.
Karen added: “It makes us cautious, I used to check the cameras twice of an evening when I go home. But since this has happened, I’ll need to check the camera more so it also impacts on our working day.”
Karen also explained how much more demand there has been for the services of Emmeline’s Pantry over the last two years. She said: “Pre-Covid to now, our footfall has gone up 225 percent. We used to have 12 families using us and now we have an average of 39. 39 families doesn’t sound like a lot but it equates to nearly 300 people and also all of our surplus goes to help other charities.”
She estimates that weekly, Emmeline’s Pantry helps around 700 people. She also explained that while pre-Covid, the average for new referrals each week was around three. Last week, the foodbank received 14 new referrals.
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