HILO, Hawai'i — Burglars broke into the Hawai'i Island Foodbank's Kona warehouse last weekend and made off with a van and a safe containing about $2,000 in cash and checks donated to the charitable organization.

Carol Ignacio, executive director of the Office of Social Ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, said the burglary caused major problems for the foodbank during the busy holiday season. Without that van, the Kona operation was left with just one vehicle to gather thousands of pounds of donated food from stores, schools and other donors.

"The van for us is high-value," Ignacio said. "You have everybody giving (during the holidays) and for us it's an opportunity to get the food, and we don't want to miss that."

Ignacio said 98 social service agencies on the Big Island rely on the foodbank's Hilo and Kona warehouses to supply emergency food to their clients. There are about 14,000 requests for food each month across the Big Island, she said.

The thieves loaded a flat-screen computer monitor, the warehouse safe, about 100 pounds of food, and a propane tank into the white 1991 Ford van, and stripped the foodbank logo off the van before leaving, Ignacio said.

Ignacio said she is hoping a replacement van will be donated, and is contacting local banks to ask them to waive the banking fee for people who wrote checks to donate to the foodbank, and are now forced to cancel their checks because of the theft.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.