Kate Middleton and Prince William's heartfelt gesture to Peckham food bank raided by thieves

The Prince and Princess of Wales have made a ‘private donation’ to a food bank which had thousands of pounds worth of food and donations stolen last weekend. The Southwark food bank was ransacked by thieves in a ‘hammer blow’ which has left hundreds of families struggling.

The food bank, on Peckham High Street, was targeted in the early hours of Sunday, September 8. Christian charity Pecan, who runs the service, have said that they are ‘overwhelmed’ by the support from ‘across society’ and wanted to say a ‘huge thank you’ to Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The head of the south London food bank has said he has been ‘heartened by the surge of generosity’ from people. Pecan’s chief executive Peter Edwards said about £3,000 of food and hygiene products were taken, as well as a laptop.

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They said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “A huge thank you to @Kensingtonroyal who have donated to the recovery effort following the theft of £3K of food supplies from @southwarkfoodbk. All at @Pecan121a have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from across society. Food stocks are being replenished now.”

The Christian charity describes their role as “transforming lives through kindness, belief, hope” The Metropolitan Police were called to the food bank on Monday morning, following reports of the burglary, but no arrests were made. Mr Edwards told BBC London: "It's had a devastating impact and it hits the most vulnerable people in our community.

"We're all emotionally invested in the services we provide; we're only here to help other people so it's a hammer blow when something like this happens." He said the team was "working very hard" to make sure none of their clients went without food parcels.

"We've got enough in house now to keep serving people in need, but it's important that we continue to fundraise on an urgent scale." Mr Edwards also said the theft added costs such as "staff time, and all the things that you're not doing because you're dealing with the result of a crime on your premises".

Team 'busting a gut' to replenish the stolen stock

He said the team was now ‘busting a gut’ to try to fundraise and replenish the stock. Head of food services at the food bank Shahid Mughal said: "The first thing they saw was that the shutter had been lifted and the glass had been broken. The team on Monday felt quite deflated because there's a lot of hard work that goes into collecting the food."

"The community here is tremendous, they give us large amounts of food on a weekly basis and to have lost all of that is problematic.” Mr Mughal said the theft would also have a "substantial impact" on the community because the food bank helps about 4,000 people a year, giving out parcels to about 100 households a week.

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