By MADDY VITALE
Vincent Bertucci stopped by the Acme at Eighth Street in Ocean City on Friday morning to do some grocery shopping. Most of what he purchased was going to people he didn’t even know.
Bertucci, of Ocean City, filled his cart with boxes of pasta, jars of pasta sauce, and cans of Progresso soup and some other items.
He pushed his shopping cart over to an Ocean City Police Department pickup truck and greeted Officers Jack Davis and Ryan Lutz, who both smiled as he approached. Then the officers took the items and put them in a container.
Bertucci’s shopping trip was specifically to help those in need in a nationwide food and supplies drive called, “Faith and Blue Weekend,” being celebrated through Oct. 10.
The Ocean City Police Department and the Ocean City Ecumenical Council joined in the nationwide program for their own version of the event, called, “Fill the Truck for People Down on Their Luck.”
“I think it is great,” Bertucci, said of the food and supplies drive. “More than ever, especially with unbelievably high food prices, it is needed. I just hope it will help someone in some small way.”
In addition to the Acme at Eighth Street, there were two other locations where people could drop off the needed items.
The Acme at 34th Street was another location for the event. People could also donate items on the east side of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, where the Food Cupboard is housed.
Davis, who grew up in Ocean City, explained that residents and visitors of Ocean City showed their generosity Friday morning before the event even began.
“Ocean City is one of the best places to live,” he said. “The community always is super-generous. We are so fortunate.”
Sauces, soups, pastas, feminine products and bags of diapers were just some of the items people in the community donated to the cause by Friday morning.
Lutz called being a part of the food drive “rewarding.”
“I enjoy being out in the community and helping,” he said. “This is a great department to be in.”
Faith and Blue is an organization with the main goal of connecting law enforcement agencies and local faith-based communities. The event was aimed at helping stock the food cupboard for the upcoming holiday season.
The Ocean City Police Department teamed up with the Ocean City Ecumenical Council specifically because it runs the food and clothing cupboards and the items are shared and accessible by all churches in Ocean City to help those in need, according to police.
The Ecumenical Council Food Cupboard provides food and supplies to more than 2,400 people each year.
Regina Ralston, coordinator of the Ecumenical Council Food Cupboard, said she was supportive of the idea to partner with the police department.
“They came to me a couple of weeks ago with the idea and I thought it was a wonderful thing,” Ralston said. “I personally think it is a great idea. We are thrilled that they chose us. It helps us stock our shelves to help the residents and I hope it is the beginning of an annual event.”
Across town, Officers Michael Hinsley and Sean O’Rourke were busy loading up a police vehicle with nonperishable items donated by shoppers at the 34th Street Acme.
Shoppers breezed out of the grocery store to hand-deliver items to help those in need.
“People started lining up to give a little before 11,” Hinsley explained. “It’s been really good.”
O’Rourke said that as a Class II officer interested in becoming a full-time officer, the food donation drive was an aspect of policing that, like Lutz, he said was very rewarding to be a part of.
“It’s really nice to be able to help people,” he said.
While the officers packed the food and personal items into the back of a truck bed, shoppers came out to drop off some donations.
Theresa and Jack Vogel, of Broomall, Pa., and their 4-year-old grandson, Mason Vogel, came out of the Acme with a cart filled with food.
The Vogels were not even on a food shopping trip when they came upon the food drive.
“We were just walking by and asked what the officers were doing and then we went in and did some shopping,” Theresa Vogel said with a smile.
And with that, Mason took diapers and some other items over to Hinsley and O’Rourke to pack into one of the bags.
At the end of the day, officers delivered the food and personal items to the Ecumenical Council.
Ralston weighed the food, noting the huge success of the event. In one day — eight hours to be precise — people from the community donated 1,642 pounds of food for others in need.
