Cars were lined up around KCPD’s East Patrol station Tuesday afternoon almost 45 minutes ahead of the 4pm scheduled start time for The 5th annual Hams for the Holidays event sponsored by HyVee grocery stores, Hormel and Harvesters Food Bank, all partnered with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department. 

At precisely 4pm, a shiny refrigerated truck wheeled in to the East Patrol parking lot to the delight of volunteers and neighbors alike.

Luke Long, a Store Director from Olathe, Kansas says recognizing food insecurity in the community is important to their core mission.

“I think one of the most important things about this type of campaign that we do is that it being a grocer, we recognize food insecurity within our communities,” Long said. “So for us, it’s super important that we give back to the communities we are a part of, communities that we operate in. So when we can we can get together with a company like Hormel,the Harvesters food Bank and our first  responders, the impact that we can make within our communities is much more dramatic than just one person doing it alone.”

East Patrol’s Community Interaction Officer Pat Byrd said events like this offer hope to a community that in many ways is still suffering the lingering effects of the pandemic. “We just want to be a blessing for them during this Easter season,” said Byrd.
“We know their family may still be suffering from lack of employment, lack of income things along those lines. Oftentimes, the only time they see a police officer is when police officers in the act of arresting an individual or a family member so we just want to be a positive blessing to them during this holiday season.”

Over 500 hams were given away this afternoon along with almost 450 boxes from Harvesters containing all the fixins for an Easter dinner for a family of four to six people.