Rather than opening up your wallet to pay off a parking ticket, this Ohio police department is asking people to pay off their fines with canned food donations.
This is not the first time that police departments have used parking ticket fees to help fund important community initiatives. In addition to several North American law enforcement teams collecting donations for teachers, animals, and holiday toy drives, the Lexington Police Department opted to accept canned food for parking tickets back in 2017.
Now, the Bay Village Police Department is partnering with the Bay Food Ministry to collect food donations until December 25th.
According to the department’s Facebook page, the Bay Food Ministry was responsible for donating 47,392 pounds of food last year alone.
The department is accepting up to $25 worth of non-perishable food items for each individual parking violation—and they hope their “Food for Fines” initiative will help inspire other police departments to launch similar charity drives in their own cities.
“There is a regular need for cereal, cans of tuna or chicken, canned soup, and toilet paper,” wrote the department. “If you would like to donate (without the parking ticket!) donations will be accepted in the lobby of the police department 24/7.”
Serve Up Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media — File photo by Charleston’s TheDigitel, CC; Salvation Army USA West, CC