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RANKIN INLET - The Rankin Inlet food bank has shut its doors for the foreseeable future after being targeted by vandals for the second time in as many weeks.

Rankin Inlet food bank volunteer Kathleen Irwin holds up the door to the store room which was damaged by vandals last week. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

"Since we have no doors left to lock, we're just going to shut it indefinitely," said food bank volunteer Kathleen Irwin. "I'm just so tired of this. I'm tired of doing this and having this happen over and over."

Sometime during the foggy August long weekend, the inner door to the food bank's small space inside the Holy Comforter Anglican Church was busted. Deadbolts were bent and door frames cracked to the point where volunteers had to take one door off its hinges just to get in.

Only weeks before, vandals had broken in through the church itself causing more damage. In return, they fled with a couple boxes of Rice Krispies Squares.

"We had gone for a year when it wasn't that bad. Prior to that it was almost a daily thing," Irwin said.

The food bank got its start more than a decade ago, as a joint project of three local churches. Since then it has been funded by the profits of the adjacent thrift store.

Over the years it has provided as many as 26 families with groceries a week, most of which have at least five people, according to Irwin.

"These break-ins, they have endangered a service that people obviously do use," she said.

The cost of the broken deadbolts alone are about $60 a piece and Irwin estimated it could cost upwards of $1,000 to repair the most recent damages.

The money, however, may not be the toughest thing to swallow for the volunteers.

"I just find it hard to believe that no one knows anything, that no one has seen anything, the many times this has happened over the years," Irwin said. "I'm just really, really demoralized over the whole thing."

According to local RCMP Sgt. Peter Pilgrim, the best thing for someone to do if they have seen something is to call his office.

The food bank has not been the only place in town to get hit recently, he explained.

"The summer months, we've had a lot more break and enters than we do in the winter months," he said.

There's very little to do to prevent such things besides ensuring doors and windows are locked securely, particularly with deadbolts, according to Pilgrim.

"Other than that, if a person is going to break in a regular lock is not going to stop someone," he said. "And an open door is an open invitation."