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’s 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’s counties in Maryland as early as next week.

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

“We want to make sure we are serving food with dignity,” Curran said. “So 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’s really important that we’re meeting that need.”

For D.C. police’s leadership team, Smith said contributing to the community isn’t unusual. This year, the agency changed its tagline to “Policing with Purpose and Serving with Care.”

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.

“Usually, 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,” Smith said.

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

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

Andrew Vu said, “Nowadays, I don’t have a lot of opportunities to go out and do something good, just on my own accord.”

For Smith and the department’s executive team, “It’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 — especially our seniors,” Smith said.