Thieves have trashed the Narrabundah office of Canberra charity Marymead and stolen up to $5000 in computer equipment.
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For the past five years, the site has been used to run a social enterprise where young people with disabilities grow and sell their own organic vegetables. But on Wednesday morning, staff discovered the building had been ransacked; equipment was strewn on the floor and the computers, along with profits from last week's market sales, taken.
Fortunately, the vegetable gardens were spared
On Thursday, Marymead chief executive Camilla Rowland described the burglary as "traumatic".
For the 30 or so participants in the 'Mulch Program', who are all aged between 17 and 30 and all have high needs, it was particularly distressing. The program is the only one of its kind in Canberra, Ms Rowland said.
"Some of these young people have been coming since here we started it, this is their workplace, this is their social life," she said.
"They get to see everything grow from the seedlings right through to the sales, it runs every day of the week."
"It's not just the things that were stolen but that they felt the need to trash it as well...fortunately [we] got there first and our clients didn't have to see the mess."
An ACT Policing spokeswoman confirmed officers had attended the scene of the burglary and were now investigating.
The break-in had come at a particularly difficult time for the program, Ms Rowland said, as staff had been packing up to move to a new site in Stirling next month.
Over the next two years, Marymead's Narrabundah property will be demolished and redeveloped.
"The Mulch Program was the last Marymead program to leave, we'd spent months preparing them for what was already a very unsettling time," Ms Rowland said.
"Most of [the participants] have an intellectual disability and cannot cope with change, and now this."
Ms Rowland said while the program would continue, the loss of equipment, most of which had been donated by the Canberra community, would be deeply felt.
"You know $5000 might not sound like a lot to some people, but when you're trying to run a charity, it means it a lot," she said.
"We've always had such great support from the community, I think the broader Canberra community will be really upset this has happened."
Marymead had also had to pay to increase security on the site after the break-in, including the installation of more cameras.
Donations to help Marymead replace the items stolen can be made at marymead.org.au.
