Cape Town - The Tafelsig Community Action Network (CAN) food kitchen has reopened after its storage room was burgled.
The incident took place last week, when a substantial amount of food, baby clothes and other goods were stolen.
Facilitator Joanie Fredericks said the feeding scheme would now cater only for vulnerable children, the elderly and disabled, while investigations into the burglary continued.
“This is completely unacceptable and I want the community to know that I am now dependent on them to find the culprits. We have been bending over backwards for the past 18 months, and gone through Covid-19 and back to feed the people, and for that I am not going to allow the hands that we feed be the ones that bite us.
“As a community we know the hunger crisis and Covid-19 is not over yet, and too many people and sponsors have sacrificed a lot to ensure the community is fed,” she said.
Fredericks said after days of discussions with her team and supportive residents they decided to continue feeding only the vulnerable groups with the limited stock they had.
“We cannot hold them accountable for the actions of unscrupulous criminals. This was not a random attack but a plan by someone who at some point assisted us in carrying stock into the storeroom and probably cooked for us.
“This person had the presence of mind to disable our cameras, took two hours to do what they did, and reconnect it,” she said.
Fredericks said it was time the community was held accountable for the actions of the criminals.
“In a community like Tafelsig there’s always someone who saw, benefited, and who bought. By taking this action we also want to make it clear that we are standing up against buying stolen goods.
“We hope the rest of the community will follow suit to say whenever there is a break-in criminals will find no buyer, and in doing so address the issue of break-ins and sale of stolen goods,” she said.
Tafelsig CAN supporter and ambassador Marc Lottering, who condemned the break-in, said his immediate concern was for the innocent people who relied on the meals, which he said they would only be addressing moving forward.
Police spokesperson André Traut said a housebreaking case was under investigation and arrests were yet to be made.