The moment a yob brought a charity project's fridge crashing down – destroying its contents in the process – has been caught on CCTV.

Two youngsters filmed themselves vandalising the Hawkhurst Community Fridge, where volunteers donate food which people in need can collect.

Yobs target the Hawkhurst Community Fridge. Watch to the end

Ellen Neville, project manager of the initiative, called what the thugs did "disrespectful and senseless".

It happened overnight on Monday when two people – believed to be teenagers – were caught on CCTV targeting the fridge.

Based outside The Green Shop in Rye Road, High Street, Hawkhurst, the cooler is open 9.30am to 4pm every day but is padlocked at night.

One of the yobs, while apparently being filmed by his accomplice, wrenched it open before dropping it on its front. Nothing was taken from inside.

Around 80 kilos of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat had to be thrown out.

Ellen, a mother-of-two from Hawkhurst, who is also a Tunbridge Wells borough councillor, described the impact of the vandalism.

"We are a team of 27 volunteers and all of us are disheartened and in despair," she said. "It was a network point for the community.

"Whatever mitigations we had in place for security they were determined to break it – it’s disrespectful and senseless.

"It comes as a great cost to the volunteers, processing food, maintaining hygiene, driving food around. We do it because we care. We want our village to be fed.

"We can’t continue until the boys are caught. They need to be brought in line."

Frustratingly, the volunteer group only bought the fridge in May. They say it will cost £1,700 to replace with a new one.

But Ellen believes the cost is "far more reaching" than financial.

She said: "We average three tonnes of food every month – that’s a lot of people being fed. The pinch is going to be felt across the community. We have 200 users a week."

Ellen explained the fridge idea began at the start of the pandemic and quickly grew into a hub for people.

She said: "I’m already missing that level of communication that I have with the community. It was definitely a reach-out point in a very scary time."

Reflecting on what happened, she added: "It hurts so much, it’s only done very good things.

"When I open the fridge and clean it I have regular people visit me just to talk.

"Many of the volunteers are anonymous – this is some thanks for the work they do.

"We’ve just had our second birthday, we distributed 39 tons of food, that’s 93,769 meals."

She continued: "We have every demographic come, children and families, older residents, our eldest customer is 93, we have working people.

"The whole point of the project is about sharing."

The matter has been reported to police and fingerprints were taken but Ellen says until the culprits are caught they fear it happening again so they are reluctant to start it up again.

She said the future of the project depended on the boys being reprimanded.

"If we can find those boys, the team around me are ready to go into full throttle and get up and going as soon as possible. We want to get back to work.

"We're not an endless resource, we don’t get paid, it’s a community facility and it cannot be abused – it’s insulting to all."

The councillor has said better security measures will be put in place and hopes more fridges will be available across the borough.

Ellen, who grew up on a farm and says her passion for the projects stemmed from her childhood, said: "I want every ward in Tunbridge Wells to have a community fridge.

"There’s room for it. I have people who have shops and farms who have agreed to join our scheme.

"The whole community is in support of the fridge."