During lunch today, volunteers and members of the Eureka Police Department, including EPD's Community Safety Enhancement Team (CSET), partnered with Saint Vincent De Paul staff to cook and serve lunch to around 200+ people at their free dining facility (35 W.3rd Street, Eureka).
"Grill Masters" Wayne Rabang, Drake Goodale, and Leonard LaFrance barbecued up platters of pork ribs and chicken (about 200 pounds of donated meat) for the diners while other team members including Officer Brian Ross helped out in the kitchen and served up meals.
The dining facility typically serves around 250 plates of food each day during their free lunchtime meal. During today's BBQ event, around 500 plates of food were served (some people come back for seconds, thirds and even fourths)! SVdP's free dining facility serves not only the homeless, but also many others who are indigent and in need in our community.
While some might question this use of an hour or two of a few of our officers' time, I believe it was well spent.
Bridge-building that fosters partnerships, understanding, trust, and cooperation is vital to a more healthy and safe community.
While we do our primary mission of law "enforcement" well, EPD also recognizes our role as "guardians" and servants for our community. The CSET team came up with this idea and volunteered to BBQ and serve meals with SVdP staff after hearing the facility had an abundance of meat needing to be cooked. They make me proud and should you too."
--EPD Chief Steve Watson--
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