The Hunger Intervention Program in Lake City, a North Seattle nonprofit working to fight food insecurity, is now working with police after it was burglarized last weekend.
“That is our primary mission – to make sure no one goes hungry in our neighborhood,” said Srijan Chakraborty, Co-Executive Director of Hunger Intervention Program.
Chakraborty says it likely happened overnight Sunday.
The burglar, or burglars, busted out the window of a delivery van and stole another – but that wasn’t all they took.
“I went to the office, and then my jaw dropped, my heart sank, because then I saw all the glass shattered everywhere,” said Chakraborty.
He says offices were trashed, desks were ransacked, and multiple laptops were stolen, along with gift cards and checkbooks.
“Someone tried to write a check in our name and tried to deposit it in the bank recently, and we got that,” said Chakraborty.
There’s no video of the crime because their security cameras were down.
“We haven’t seen any external signs of forced entry, so that’s part of the mystery – we don’t know how they got into the building,” he said.
Hunger Intervention Program delivers 19,000 meals a month to seniors, children and the unsheltered.
The owners told KIRO 7 their mission didn’t take a pause because of the break-in.
“Thankfully, we were able to get all the meals out, so that is the most important thing: no one got hungry; we got the meals out,” said Chakraborty.
SPD says they are investigating the incident.