Barrow Foodbank has been given £30,000 after its base was broken into and vandalised.
No food was stolen in the raid but thousands of pounds-worth of damage was caused at the facility in Abbey Road.
BAE Systems has donated the £30,000 to the foodbank.
Steve Timms, Managing Director at BAE Systems Submarines, said: “Barrow Foodbank provides a really valuable service to many members of our community and we were saddened to hear the news it had been broken into recently.
“As a big supporter of the great work it does for the town, we are proud to be able to help the foodbank at this difficult time.”
Claire Coulthurst, project manager at Barrow Foodbank, said: “Once again I have been rendered speechless by the generosity of BAE and this unbelievable amount of money that is being donated to Barrow Foodbank. It was such a lovely news to hear after what was a rubbish few days following a burglary at our premises.”
The past 18 months have been immensely challenging for Barrow Foodbank. The impact of COVID-19 meant it had to change the way it operates both in the warehouse and when distributing food.
Claire said: “Most of those changes are still in place now, including deliveries of food parcels. With money donated in 2020 by the local community and businesses such as BAE Systems, we were able to buy a new van, which has increased our capacity for the amount of deliveries we can do.
“Within the foodbank itself we have gone from being a very social establishment with lots of volunteers to being very operational with fewer volunteers, but the demand and the food donations haven’t faltered.
“The current warehouse space, even though we have tried to adapt it with extra cages and equipment is becoming less fit for purpose and so the very generous donation from BAE Systems means we can look at adapting the current warehouse and office space significantly or even look at an alternative building.”
Last year Barrow Foodbank fed 5,027 people – with 2,045 of those being children. As the cost of living continues to increase, staff do not anticipate any lessening of demand.
Visit https://barrow.foodbank.org.uk/ for details about how you can help Barrow Foodbank.
