Public safety is more than just responding to emergencies, as Savannah Police Department Chief Lenny Gunther tells it.
That’s why the city of Savannah and its public safety agencies have teamed up with Amazon and Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia to tackle food insecurity in the city. Officials announced Tuesday a new program that will supply Savannah police and fire officers with food kits to deploy in the field.
“Our public safety officers encounter individuals from all walks of life on a daily basis, and as the mayor said, we meet people where they are,” Gunther said. “Through this new partnership, our officers will be able to quickly distribute food boxes to any member of the community they encounter and determine are food insecure.”
The program will begin with about 1,000 boxes to be deployed this week, according to Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia Executive Director Mary Jane Crouch. Then, Second Harvest will continue to refill boxes as the need arrives.
Boxes will be kitted with canned foods, grains, vegetables and fruits. Amazon’s head of community affairs for the Atlanta Region, Terreta Rodgers, said Tuesday that the partnership is the first of its kind in Georgia. Amazon has a $250 million fulfillment center in the region that opened in 2023, making it one of coastal Georgia’s major employers.
Rodgers added the initiative serves two functions beyond expanding food access: establishing collaborative relationships between public safety officials and community members; enabling Second Harvest to expand its reach.
“Through this program, they’re able to get food to our neighbors who really need food in those areas that are hard to reach,” Rodgers said.
The food insecurity rate in Chatham County was around 13%, or about 38,460 people in 2022, according to nonprofit organization Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap report. The total number of food insecure people was up by nearly 8,000 from the 30,880 calculated in 2021, according to the report.
When it comes to meeting residents where they are, SFD Fire Chief Elzie Kitchen said department members are in people’s homes every day and often have opportunities where they could deploy the food boxes. Gunther added that SPD officials will receive training in how to identify and deploy the food kits to those most in need.
The initiative was spearheaded by Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who first approached Rodgers with the idea. Johnson used the initiative to call on the city’s mission statement, where it states in part that Savannah will be safe and environmentally healthy for “all of its citizens.”
Johnson went on to emphasize, in his typical fashion, that “all means all.”
“We’re going to continue to lead with compassion. We’re going to move forward in ensuring that everyone has opportunity for the things that many of us take for granted, and among those is food.”
Evan Lasseter is the city of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at [email protected].
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