A small part of us dies

An update last night suggests the van may have been found but unfortunately none of the stolen items have turned up yet. What makes someone rob a church and a food bank?

I’m afraid it’s well beyond my level of understanding. I know we live in difficult times and that millions are struggling especially with the cost-of-living crisis. But without knowing the facts, and indeed the motives of those carrying out the robberies, it’s pointless speculating. All I can say it’s desperately sad that some things have been stolen and it’s unlikely they will ever be found.

I can understand, though not excuse, the levels of shoplifting in shops and supermarkets. If you are desperate, then perhaps desperate measures are called for. I do hope that beyond anger and condemnation, which has been the reaction of some people, we look deeper for the root causes, not just of crime but also food poverty and just about everything else that is wrong in our country.

In terms of poverty, the problems are deep-seated and, if we are being honest and serious, they can only be properly addressed and dealt with by way of politics. People’s kindness in volunteering to work in food banks, and the generosity of those who donate the food and toiletries that sustain them, only takes you so far.

Online reactions were instant and generous, with all manner of people and organisations, mainly other churches, offering to help, particularly with donations. (I do not know if food and toiletries were stolen.) Food banks need all they can get at the moment, with donations in some places “going off a cliff”, as one administrator told me. But in the end, the efforts of volunteers, those of faith and those of none, are limited in effect. Dealing with emergencies, as food banks do, requires quick solutions but surely the main aim of any organisation dealing with food poverty should be to make itself redundant.

Speaking personally, I would love it if I was made redundant at our food bank because no one needed it anymore. But if food banks are to be made surplus to society’s needs, then it’s for governments and councils to take the lead, to effect long-term strategies and do away with sticking plaster solutions. So, finding out the reasons why people break into churches and food banks is actually quite important because – and let’s be blunt about this – it’s a pretty low-life crime being carried out against the people who are doing more than most to support those society has left behind.

Having said all that, I do have a low tolerance level of crime, perhaps even a zero tolerance level, particularly this particular instance of crime which feels particularly heartless and brainless. If those who carried out the crime are ever brought to justice, and I hope they are, they need to be punished as well as listened to. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime? Yes. Absolutely that.

A small part of us dies when we hear about crimes like these, just like we do with all soft target crime. And there is a sense of the poor robbing the poor. At least that’s how it feels to me.

What I do feel about this incident is both sadness and a determination to restate my view that nothing will change until people get political. Not party political, but to lean on the elected representatives who are sent to work on our behalf. Government and councils can’t do everything but it’s a sick society that sits by while people can’t afford to eat and where others steal from the people who are trying to help feed them.