A RINGWOOD catering van is back up and running thanks to public donations after it was vandalised and ransacked for the second time.

Sandra Hodder who owns Hot Box burger van, was “overwhelmed by the generosity” when she found out that her daughter Olivia had set up a GoFundMe page to try and raise £1,000 to repair the damage to the van and replace the stock that had to be thrown away after vandals left the fridges open last Wednesday night (12/12).

Nearly 60 supporters helped to surpass the £1,000 target, with £500 of that raised in just six hours after the page was published.

“The support from the local community has been amazing, everyone’s been rallying around. We’ve got lovely customers asking if they can do anything to help. One of my customers came to me and within an hour had sorted someone to come and fit an alarm for me to prevent this happening again", Sandra said.

The vandals took everything they could get their hands on from the pots and pans, to the grill machine and even the charity box. The van is normally sited in Embankment Way.

The money from the charity box is used by a local man to maintain the graves of the war heroes in Ringwood in his own time.

Sandra said it was a “big shock” to come in on the Thursday morning to find that everything had gone. The van door was so badly damaged that she had to close the business.

“We lost two days of peak trading. I have insurance but that won’t cover all the costs and my husband had to take the day off work to try and fix the door so neither of us were earning. It was very frustrating for us.”

Sandra's daughter, Olivia Holt said: “I set up the page because my Mum would never ask for help herself and I just wanted to show that people care and are willing to help her. Most of her customers are people who don’t have time to make their own food so the van is like a little local community.

“One man donated £100 and she cried as she couldn’t believe it.

“We honestly can’t thank everyone enough for their kindness and generosity, we have been truly overwhelmed. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to get back up and running as quickly as we have.”

Story by Kerry Martin