Community steps up after break-in at a Sudbury, Ont. food bank

A small food bank in Sudbury, Ont. says support from the community has helped it bounce back after a break-in during a critical time of year.

Inner-City Home provides emergency food bank services to about 200 households a month throughout the city.

On Sunday, Dec. 3 Joe Drago, president of the food bank's board of directors, said he discovered someone broke into their office the night before.

"The ironic thing and the frustrating thing is that when you have a break in at the food bank, you would anticipate that the break in is going to be because you're hungry and you need food," he said.

"There was not one item of food that was taken. It was strictly all electronic equipment, laptops, telephones, cell phones, etc."

Drago said the person, or people, responsible broke into the building through a window.

"They never did open the office door going into the food area," he said. "Had they done that, the alarm would have triggered."

Following the break-in, Drago said they've had to upgrade their security system to cover that window and other areas, as well as replacing the office equipment that was stolen.

They also stole money collected from a 50/50 draw at a Sudbury Wolves game on Friday, Dec. 1.

Those costs come at an especially busy time for all food banks in the city, just before Christmas," Drago said, 

"We have so many new people in the community, people that I call first-timers, they just come into town and they're already coming down to the food bank in order to get food," he said.

But Drago said the break-in has also raised Inner-City Home's profile, and community donations have poured in to make up for the lost funds and equipment.

"I've had people come in with cheques off the street saying, 'Gosh, we just heard this. We didn't even know that you were doing this type of work,'" he said.

Drago added that even with all the donations coming in, the food bank needs more volunteers to help deliver food to families in need.