Food Bank in Virginia Burglarized in Face of Rising Demand

A food bank in Alexandria, Va., told the police on Wednesday that more than 1,000 pounds of canned goods were stolen from its warehouse, reports The Washington Post.

The nonprofit food-distribution program, called Alive, delivers food to about 12,000 people a year. The stolen food — estimated to be a third of the stored supply — included such goods as meat, tuna, and spaghetti sauce and was intended to help people who run low on food stamps.

Gerry Hebert, president of Alive, said that the timing could not have been worse as the food bank struggles to keep pace with rising demand in the face of a slowing economy. “To lose this much food in a theft is disheartening, to say the least,” he said. “My first thought was, ‘What are we going to do for getting food to people in the short term?’”

Although the organization is optimistic that members will rally to replace the food, the question of where to store the items after the recent theft remains unanswered. “Do we put it in the same place, where someone can just steal it again?” Mr. Hebert asked. “That’s the problem.”

(Read an opinion article from the newest issue of The Chronicle about how food banks should respond to increasing poverty.)