A local charity's Food Bus has been set back after it was vandalised less than a month after it launched

The converted double-decker bus was defaced using orange and black spray paint over the weekend, meaning that it is out of service until the paint has been removed.

The Food Bus is run by Be Enriched , a local charity founded by Kemi Akinola, and brings affordable fresh food to underserved areas in Wandsworth at a fraction of its usual price. The bus has a cafe and shop onboard and stops at different locations throughout the week around south west London, but is kept in Tooting.

After years of work to get the bus on the road, it had only been out for just under a month, leaving the communities this bus is serving without until the required work is done.

With all sides of the bus being covered with graffiti and the windows completely sprayed over, it cannot be driven for health and safety reasons.

Nub News spoke to Ruby, a worker for Be Enriched, who spoke of the disappointment the charity felt for those it cannot serve.

"It's put a massive spanner in the works for us," she said.

"This project has been a couple of years in the making and we only had it out for just under a month.

"It's really disappointing for all of the communities that we serve. Such a shame."

The charity had volunteers come up this morning (June 28) to try and clean the paint off the bus, however, the work was done with spray paint that couldn't be removed by non-specialist cleaning equipment.

Ruby went onto say that if the graffiti hadn't been so severe that they could have still used the bus and embraced any tag that was left on there.

She said: "We heard about it when we came in and we were just shocked. You hear graffiti and you think it would be tags. Even if it was tags we could still use it.

"But it was just complete disruptive graffiti. Vandalism.

"The bus just can't be used in the way it wants to be.

"I feel bad for the schools and the churches, it's really sad."

With the volunteers trying and failing to remove the paint manually, the organisation has asked for people to help out in a different way. By either suggesting any contacts who can help with the removal of the paint, by volunteering for future work or by donating to the charity.

You can find out more about by visiting the website of Be Enriched . You can help support the pages of

Global Giving

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