‘Soul-destroying’: UK foodbank broken into and ‘ransacked’ as Covid-19 outbreak provokes panic over supplies

A foodbank in West Yorkshire, England has been broken into and £500-worth of items such as food, sanitary products and basic supplies stolen, as the febrile atmosphere in the UK cranks up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Local Labour MP Yvette Cooper took to social media on Thursday afternoon to express her dismay at the brazen criminality committed against Knottingley Foodbank, tweeting: “Truly appalled anyone could do this right now.”

Cooper – Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP – hit out at the culprits, insisting that if they had done this “in order to make profit from other people’s desperation” then that would be “a shocking and shameful crime.”

Janet Burns, the facility’s manager, revealed that thieves had broken in and “ransacked” their premises of essential items on Wednesday night, stealing £500 worth of food and toiletries.

It’s dire, it really is. It’s soul-destroying for the volunteers. The people that have stolen have stolen from the general public, not just the foodbank.

It’s not the first time a foodbank – whose sole objective is to provide essential basic supplies to those living in poverty – has been targeted since the coronavirus outbreak in the UK.

Earlier this week, a Tesco store in Hove was forced to remove its foodbank donation trolley after panic buyers were seen raiding it. One witness, former councillor Chris Hawtree, said he was shocked to see “people stealing tins from it as they could not find stock to buy.”

Shocking footage of a man smashing the glass entrance of a Sainsbury’s store in Elephant and Castle, south London, was posted on Twitter on Thursday, as alarm over the coronavirus crisis grips the UK. Police said that just prior to the incident, shop workers had confronted a group of men they spotted stealing alcohol.

In the last few days, big supermarket chains such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda said they were now limiting shoppers to no more than three of any food items, while also applying restrictions to cleaning and toiletry products in an effort to stop panic buying. Critics say such measures should have been introduced a lot earlier.

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