Serve and Connect, other local agencies partner together to deliver hot meals for Thanksgiving Day

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The City of Columbia is in the giving spirit. Local agencies including the Columbia Police Department and South Carolina DHEC partnered with Serve and Connect to hand out food to people across the metro area.

It’s the first time Serve and Connect, and other local agencies joined forces for a mission of this kind. Organizers from today’s food delivery say strengthening community ties was today’s theme.

It’s the community in action as local agencies and organizations came together to deliver not just food, but a sense of gratitude to those who are in need.

For the Columbia Police Department, Thanksgiving Day was another opportunity to bridge any gaps between law enforcement and the people they protect.

Officer Dylan Barfield with the Columbia Police Department says, “It’s just nice to get out in the community and build that partnership between the police and the community because we’re community members just like everybody else, it’s just our job to be here.”

The plan was to deliver food to homebound residents, families in need, and those who are unsheltered this time of year. With 50 volunteers ready to get to work they started the day off by packaging hundreds of meals.

“Serve and connect we are an organization of connections and partnerships, and we like to lift up. It is our joy to be able to lift up the good that exists in our communities and help it shine and so that’s really all it’s about. All this good is already happening, but we just create a space to work together as one team and one community,” said Kassy Alia Ray, the founder, and C.E.O of Serve and Connect.

And as a team, they hit the roads for delivery. CPD taking out the first few meals. The Serve and Connect site coordinator says Thursday’s mission was just one of many. The organization has been working all week to give back.

“It’s an entire week of action with the aim to touch and show support and care for neighborhoods and residents across North Columbia in many different ways and that’s what the entire week was about,” said Erica Staley, the Columbia site coordinator.

Serve and Connect and their partners packaged and delivered 200 hot meals today and while this was their first food delivery, C.E.O, and founder of Serve and Connect Kassy Alia Ray says they plan to add this food delivery to their list of annual food distributions.

Serve and connect also delivered meals to people in Florence and Orangeburg Counties.

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