NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) – Police are investigating after money was stolen from a Northampton donation box earlier this week.
The Happy Frog sculpture, on the corner of Main Street and Center Street has a lock-box that collects money for the MANNA Soup Kitchen. It helps provide free meals at St. John’s and St. Edward’s churches.
The donation box collects about $500 a month for the soup kitchen, adding to about $6,000 a year.
“The frog is probably one of our biggest donations we get,” said Lee Anderson, treasurer of MANNA’s Soup Kitchen. “We are hoping to circle around and cultivate some of that but we are living on the generosity of individual givers.”
It’s not clear how much money was stolen, but Northampton residents, like Marc Patillo, are disappointed to hear someone would steal money intended for the less fortunate.
“My daughters and I, whenever we walk by it, if we had spare change we would put it into the frog,” said Patillo. “And now hearing about this, it makes me want to do more to help the community because people should not be taking from people that need it the most.”
The Happy Frog was installed in 2008 and created by a Northampton artist.
The soup kitchen is planning on finding ways to make the lock-box more secure for the future.
