Ahead of Thanksgiving, DC police chief, volunteers pack food boxes for low-income seniors

At the Capital Area Food Bank in Northeast on Wednesday, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith and her executive team stood in line to pack food into cardboard boxes.

At one end of the line, Smith and other volunteers added milk, fruits and rice. At the other end, Smith鈥檚 staff taped up the finished product, a 30-pound food delivery for low-income seniors around the D.C. region.

As part of a USDA program, the packages will be distributed to thousands of seniors in D.C., and Montgomery and Prince George鈥檚 counties in Maryland as early as next week.

Megan Curran, the food bank鈥檚 director of community engagement, said D.C. has one of the highest rates of senior food insecurity in the nation.

鈥淲e want to make sure we are serving food with dignity,鈥� Curran said. 鈥淪o giving our clients the food that not only they want to eat, but that they want to serve their family. So many of our holiday traditions center around food, so it鈥檚 really important that we鈥檙e meeting that need.鈥�

For D.C. police鈥檚 leadership team, Smith said contributing to the community isn鈥檛 unusual. This year, the agency changed its tagline to 鈥淧olicing with Purpose and Serving with Care.鈥�

Volunteering is part of that mission, she said.

Last week, in all seven police districts, the department gave away 700 turkeys through a partnership with Giant Food and Walmart.

鈥淯sually, when I’m not able to get away for the holidays, this is the place that I love to come and be able to give back to seniors,鈥� Smith said.

Other volunteers, meanwhile, participated Wednesday to help give back before the holiday.

Nina Schwartz came with her daughter because 鈥測ou get a good workout, and you come out with a box that is helpful for people,鈥� she said.

Andrew Vu said, 鈥淣owadays, I don鈥檛 have a lot of opportunities to go out and do something good, just on my own accord.鈥�

For Smith and the department鈥檚 executive team, 鈥淚t’s not unknown for us to be able to come out of our offices and be able to do something really, I think, important for our communities 鈥� especially our seniors,鈥� Smith said.