South Windsor Police Hosting Food Drive This Weekend

Stop by Geissler’s and Stop & Shop tomorrow in South Windsor and you’ll see the town’s finest doing what they do best – helping people.

The “Emergency of Hunger Event,” a food drive sponsored by the town’s police, fire, public works and EMS professionals, as well as Rotary Club members, will be Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Stop and Shop and Geissler’s Supermarket.

The department has been involved in the food drive for four or five years, Lt. Scott Custer said.

“It’s really just an extension of serving the public. As police and fire and medical personnel, we see people at their worst and we are invited into people’s homes when they are having a tough time. By doing things like this we can reach out to people in need even in a community that’s relatively well off, there are still people in need,” Custer said.

The holidays are a time of high demand at the food pantry, even in South Windsor.

“We started doing this because we saw that there was a need in South Windsor,” said Sgt. Tom Field. “We’ve been blessed that we aren’t hungry personally but we need to make sure that people are being fed, especially the children. You can’t do anything if your stomach is always growling – at school or on the job. Hopefully we’re doing something very good.” 

The drive, which is part of a larger “Emergency of Hope” competition between teams in South Windsor, Manchester, Vernon, Enfield and Windsor, has been successful in the past. So far the event has raised 108,000 food and personal care items, 4100 turkeys and over $75,000 in cash, checks and gift cards.

Residents are welcome to donate money, gift cars or items of their choosing but volunteers will be distributing lists of most-needed items as shoppers enter the store.

All food items and donations will go to the South Windsor Food Bank to help those in need during the holiday season.