Toys, food crammed into Edmonton police cruisers for people in need

Some Edmonton police officers spent time loading their cruisers with food and toys in support of a number of city agencies, including the food bank.

Edmonton police cruisers throughout the city were crammed with food and toys Friday afternoon.

It’s the third year for the ‘Cram the Cruiser’ event put on by the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), Edmonton Police Foundation and Real Canadian Superstore.

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“It’s meant to gather food for some of our most vulnerable, some of our most needy in our community, some of our social agency partners that support those individuals,” said EPS Chief Warren Driechel.

Cruisers were stationed outside Superstore locations throughout the city, covering all six EPS divisions.

Food collected in the West division patrol area will go to the Jasper Place Wellness Centre then distributed to other agencies and the community members they serve.

“Our community members, many of them are unhoused and also many of them are in deep poverty so they’re not able to get the food they deserve,” said Eunjin Kim, the community director at the wellness centre.

“It’s a huge need,” she added.

Food donations in the northwest division will go to Pregnancy Pathways, the rest will get donated to the Edmonton Food Bank.

“We come across people every day that need help who aren’t a police problem, but we want to support them,” said Chief Driechel.

“I think our goal is if we can help those in need, it reduces the amount of work we have to do. In these times, we talk about an affordability crisis; more and more people need help every day so it’s really great to see this work going on,” he added.

Toys crammed into the cruisers will be taken to various EPS locations for officers to give to kids they encounter during challenging calls for service.