For the eleventh year running, the West District police precinct provided a Thanksgiving meal for 200 needy families in Jersey City. This year’s charitable effort took place at Puccini’s Restaurant on West Side Avenue.
According to Doris Reynolds, community relations officer for the West District, Puccini’s restaurant also made a material donation to the food drive, along with donating its parking lot as a distribution location for the holiday meal.
“Puccini’s has donated 100 turkeys this year,” said Reynolds Tuesday early afternoon. Reynolds, and a small group of volunteers from the police department spent a good part of Tuesday afternoon helping needy families have a better holiday.
“I came to this country 22 years ago with no money in my pocket,” Pasquale Puccini, owner of Puccini’s. “Now, I want to help people in this area who need some aid. The West Side has been very good to me.”
Along with turkeys and rice provided by the restaurant, the volunteers also distributed vegetables, dressing, and desert for people who came by the parking lot.
“We started collecting donations from local businesses about three weeks ago,” Reynolds stated. “The schools in the West District also came through for us.”
Reynolds cited Public School 33 as one of the larger donators to the food collection efforts.
“They had a food drive and gathered about $200 worth of food,” said Reynolds. “That school has always been there when we needed it.”
One of the non-police volunteers at the distribution location on Tuesday was Kristina Slade, a Jersey City resident and a student at Hudson County Community College.
“I’m interning at the West Side district police station this year,” said Slade, a criminal justice major. “Part of my work as an intern is help out with the food drive. I mostly went to the schools to pick up the donations. It feels great to be part of this. Some Jersey City kids don’t have much, but it’s good to know we helped have a better Thanksgiving.”
Reynolds said the yearly food drive event was started by Councilmember Viola Richardson, who was at the time the Community Relations officer at the West District office.
“The food drive started as a way to give back to the community,” said Richardson. “It was also a way for the officers to become involved with the community.”
Richardson said the program began somewhat smaller in the past. Originally, between 50 and 75 families were served by the drive. This year, the officers’ efforts will provide 100 families with a Thanksgiving meal.
In conjunction with the Thanksgiving Day food drive, the West District police officers also collected toys for less fortunate families. This charitable tradition is still being carried on today.
Christmas gifts, too
Many of the families helped out at Thanksgiving would also receive a gift from those collected by the officers at the West District, according to Richardson.
“We wanted to make sure the parents are able to put a gift under the Christmas tree,’ said Richardson.
Richardson cited Old Bergen Church on Highland Avenue as one of the early supporters of the Thanksgiving-Christmas charitable effort.
“The church would purchase the food and then the officers would pack the baskets for the needy families,” Richardson explained.
“We saw this work as trying to expand people’s contact with the police department,’ said Richardson. “Most people know the police only from making calls. This allowed residents to see police as people, especially teenagers.”
“We do get a lot of new contacts through this yearly event,” said Lt. Louis Trucillo of the West District. “This one of the positive contacts that people can have with the police department. Puccini’s made one of the biggest donations this year. Without them, we would not have this much to help people with.”
Ward B Council member Mary Donnelly also commented on the police department’s efforts to make the holiday’s enjoyable for the less fortunate in Jersey City.
“This is a great service,” Donnelly commented. “With the food collection and toy drive, the police are looking out for the community. They are a great bunch of men and women.”
One of the families who benefited this year from the Thanksgiving Day food drive was Lythea Murphy’s. Murphy stopped by the food distribution location with the intent of helping her daughter Fanta’s family.
“She has six children and it was a little hard this year,’ Murphy explained. “But now we are going to have something. God is good.”
To get information of make donations to the West District’s Christmas toy drive, call (201) 547-4670. The number for the downtown and Newport area districts is (201) 547-5410.