BURGLARS smashed their way into a charity that helps the city’s most needy families.

The thieves rifled through piles of food during the break-in at the Oxford Food Bank warehouse, in Lamarsh Road, before fleeing with a laptop and camera.

Organisers believe they may also have snatched donated tins and packets of food as well as causing hundreds of pounds of damage by smashing their way in through a back window.

Robin Aitken, co-director of the Oxford Food Bank, said: “They got into the warehouse and went through a whole lot of food and made a mess of things.

“They stole a laptop computer which was not valuable.

“Really – you do wonder at people.

“It’s difficult to be absolutely certain whether food was taken – we don’t keep a very accurate inventory because we move the food on very quickly.

“What there is, is given out to charities immediately.”

As well as the laptop and camera, the thieves also stole a chequebook.

Mr Aitken added: “It’s a completely pointless crime which will be expensive to make the place safe again.

“It will cost a couple of hundred pounds to put right which could have been better spent.”

Although the charity’s warehouse is covered by its building insurance policy, Mr Aitken said that the excess they would incur means it is not worth claiming.

The Oxford Food Bank has been delivering produce to people struggling to make ends meet since 2006 and now works with 17 Oxford charities.

The charity has a sign at the front of the warehouse and a fleet of branded vans parked outside.

Carol Roberts of the Rose Hill and Donnington Advice Centre, which regularly refers people to the centre, reacted with shock and anger to the news of the break-in on Sunday night. She said: “How can people do that?

They have to be really desperate. It’s the poor taking away from the poor – which happens in a recession.

“These are people without a conscience. I think it’s terrible.”

She said Oxford Food Bank was a vital resource for people in Donnington and Rose Hill.

She said: “The young woman I sent there this week has a baby and she’s in the middle of getting her benefits changed – it’s a lifeline.

“I feel so sorry for the food bank people.

“They do such a good job.”