Burglars Plunder Food From Charity

"It's the cost of food, it's the economic situation, it's the mortgage crisis -- everything combined into one," he said. A recession would compound the problem, Smith said.

"Anecdotally, our agencies are saying 'I can't get enough food to feed the increasing number of people who are coming to our doors,' " he said.

In 2001, Smith said, member agencies provided food to 273,000 people. By 2005, that number was up to 383,000.

The Alexandria organization experienced a 30 to 40 percent spike in requests for food in the last year, Hebert said.

"Our requests for food are going up every month," said Ken Naser, executive director of Alive.

"Our greatest hope is that there comes a time when there doesn't need to be an organization like ours," Naser said. "But we've been around for 39 years, and I don't see us going away anytime soon."

The stolen food was for a food distribution program Alive runs the last Saturday of every month. It is aimed at helping people get by as their food stamps run low.

The organization distributes food from three locations to about 600 families.

Jean Moore, a volunteer who is Alive's food chairman, discovered the theft when she went to the warehouse to pick up food last Friday morning.

The door of the garage was locked and undisturbed, Moore said, but as soon as she stepped inside, she noticed the tossed boxes.

"I was just heartsick," she said.

Gone were the quality goods such as meat, tuna and spaghetti sauce, she said. Tossed to the side were canned vegetables and baked beans. She believes that the thieves took about a third of the supply.

Some of the stolen food had been collected during a Boy Scout drive last fall and Alexandria's annual Turkey Trot race.

She added that although a police report was filed, she can't imagine they will ever see the food again. The cardboard boxes have been touched by too many people to fingerprint.

"If they had just taken what they needed, it would have been more understandable," she said. "But they took so much more than anyone could possibly use. That's what makes it so difficult."