Published Monday, 21 November 2011
Thieves took the items from the front porch of St Malachy's in the Co Down town on Sunday.
It happed while the minister delivered a sermon on food poverty.
Bags of dried and tinned food had been collected by parishioners.
The people who are struggling to make ends meet have suffered from this crime, not Hillsborough
Reverend Mike Dornan
They were to be given to the East Belfast Mission to provide hampers as Christmas gifts for local people who are struggling.
"We were in the middle of our service preaching on poverty and feeding the hungry," Reverend Mike Dornan told UTV.
"Someone came into our porchway and must have literally loaded up the car and driven off with the contents of about half a dozen big plastic storage boxes of food.
"We haven't hidden the fact we've been doing the collection - we've been slightly concerned that the donation levels weren't what we expected to so this might not have been a one-off situation and people may have been coming and dipping in.
"We will have to be a little more streetwise with the way we deal with donations and hopefully that will help other churches."
Police said the theft was reported at around 12.30pm.
Their inquiries are ongoing and an appeal for information has been made.