When Senior Cpl. Chris Kaderly of the Irmo Police Department gets in his police car, he carries everything he needs: his service weapon, a pair of bright pink handcuffs and several boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese.
You might be surprised to learn that groceries could be a valuable crime fighting tool, but one local non-profit believes food can be a bridge to help bring law enforcement and the communities they serve closer together.
The program, called Greg’s Groceries, is the brainchild of Kassy Alia Ray, the founder of Serve & Connect, a South Carolina non-profit that aims to improve relationships between law enforcement agencies and the public.
As part of its mission, Greg’s Groceries equips police and sheriff’s departments around the state with cardboard boxes full of shelf-stable food intended to feed a family of four for a week.
“Most of the time when we think about making a difference, we think it has to be a grand event... but actually it’s about the little acts of kindness.” said Alia Ray at a recent Gregg’s Groceries packing event, where volunteers assembled over a thousand boxes to be distributed around the state. “We’re making a difference when we deliver that box.”
Last Thursday, Kaderly fetched one of those boxes from the storage room of the Irmo police headquarters, where the department keeps 50 Greg’s Groceries boxes. The non-perishable food items seem selected for Southern tastes: grits, canned green beans, macaroni and cheese and rice. But the boxes also include applesauce and cans of fruit and Vienna sausage.
Some cops keep a box in their car in case they run into someone in need, but Kaderly said that this box had been reserved for an Irmo family of three — an older couple who lived on a fixed income and their adult child, an amputee.
They’re one of roughly 20 families that the Irmo Police Department checks in with and supports with additional services, like providing hats and mittens in winter or fans in the summer.
“Irmo is very diverse; we have million dollar homes, and then we have $100,000 homes,” Kaderly said. “We’re giving it to the families who truly need it.”
In the decade that he’s been on the force, Kaderly says he’s seen the need for this kind of support increase in Irmo, in part due to the construction of two new apartments buildings that provide low-income housing.
Before leaving the box on the front porch of a modest, one story home in the Friarsgate neighborhood, Kaderly scanned a QR code on the side of the box and quickly entered information about how it was being used. The system helps Serve & Connect keep track of the impact that the program is having.
To date, Serve & Connect estimates that over 85,000 meals have been delivered through their Greg’s Groceries program. And on the ground, each delivery represents a small contribution towards maintaining trust and goodwill between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“We still have to do our job and lock people up. But we’re trying to close those gaps,” said Irmo Chief of Police Bobby Dale.
And it’s essential to see providing support, from Greg’s Groceries to backpack giveaways to school kids, as a full-time part of policing, Kaderly said, because that trust can quickly be eroded locally and by national events like the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
“It’s not just one single thing; it’s kind of like an ant pile because eventually all of those things are going to get us to where we need to be,” Kaderly said.
A statewide effort
The box Kaderly delivered was one of the 1,500 assembled at a recent packing event at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s helicopter hanger.
Te space, normally full of helicopters and tools, was now full of six rows of folding tables lined with palettes of shelf- stable food.
After a few introductory words, a small army of SLED agents as well as cops and sheriffs deputies from more than 70 agencies descended on the tables, transforming them into assembly lines. As the large white boxes moved down the long row of tables, volunteers filled them with cans, boxes and pamphlets on additional resources.
“What a great way for law enforcement and communities to connect,” said SLED Chief Mark Keel, as he manned a station packing boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
The inspiration for Greg’s Groceries and Serve & Connect came after Alia’s husband, Forest Acres police officer Greg Alia, was shot and killed in 2015 while he pursued a suspect into Richland Mall.
Part of her inspiration in launching the effort, Alia Ray said, was a conversation she had with Greg where he told her that many of the positive interactions law enforcement had with people went totally unknown to the general public. After his death, a woman wrote an op-ed saying that one night when she was experiencing homelessness, Greg had paid for a hotel room for her. It was this sort of act of compassion, that led Alia Ray to ask how law enforcement could help meet people’s basic needs and in the process build stronger relationships with their communities.
In 2017, Alia Ray launcehd Greg’s Groceries in partnership with the Harvest Hope Food Bank. Today, Serve & Connect not only runs Greg’s Groceries, but the group has expanded into a range of community initiatives including opening a community center in Northeast Columbia, where Greg grew up.
But Irmo Police Chief Dale said he remembered where the group once started, attending the first ever Greg’s Groceries packing event with just six or seven other people.
“I could see this becoming a Southeastern or even a nationwide thing,” Dale said.
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