Officials with the Huntington Area Food Bank need to find thousands of dollars.

Food Bank Assistant Director Brooke Ash tells MetroNews a copper thief knocked out one of their freezers last weekend by taking copper from an outside compressor unit.

The problem was not spotted until Monday.

The compressor unit had served a walk in freezer that was full of food at the time.  In all, 7,000 pounds of food worth $5,000 was lost.

Ash says it's disappointing.  "When you're looking at this economy, when donations are down and the demand is rising and you have something like this happen, it really puts a wrench in the whole thing."

Even though the Huntington Area Food Bank has other freezers, Ash says they may be forced to start turning away perishable food donations because of a lack of space.

She says they need a replacement freezer.

"We're currently trying to collect donations and fund raise and we're starting to write grants," Ash says.

The Huntington Area Food Bank serves 17 counties in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio.  A dozen of those counties are in the Mountain State.

The estimated value of the copper taken from the compressor unit is $25.