Too often, police officers’ good deeds go unnoticed, yet 95 percent of these officers continue to do good deeds. They are not looking for publicity or accolades. They are just reaching out to help their neighbor.
Two Edison patrolmen — Edward Jankowsky and Lisa Cimmino — went above and beyond in doing a good deed on Sunday. While on patrol, they were dispatched to investigate a man who was panhandling in an area of Edison. They stopped the man and questioned him, and he confessed that he was panhandling because he was trying to find enough money to buy food for his family.
It would have been very easy for these two patrolmen to arrest the man and transport him to the station for booking. Instead, Jankowsky and Cimmino went to the man’s home to investigate. They found that the man and his family were very malnourished, and they did not have any food in their home.
These two officers could have easily have said, “Oh, that’s sad” — and gone on their way. They did not do that. They came to the Hands of Hope Food Pantry and requested a bag of food that they would deliver to the family immediately.
These two officers continued to worry about that family. Jankowsky later called the food pantry and asked if it would be possible for someone from the food pantry to make an emergency food delivery to the family’s home. Their request was fulfilled by 3 p.m. that day, and the family received a substantial amount of food and information about our food pantry.
Thank you, Jankowsky and Cimmino. Your good deed epitomizes all of the good deeds that members of the Edison Police Department do every day that go unnoticed.
Jackie Goedesky
President
Hands of Hope Food Pantry