Marshall Konzen with the Ogden Breakfast Exchange Club said their hot chocolate stand at Ogden’s Christmas Village will once again be supporting Shoes for Tots this year.

Part of that includes Cocoa with Cops, which Konzen said will be Wednesday starting around the stand’s opening at 6 p.m., with Ogden City police officers on site for at least a couple of hours through 9 p.m.

“The outreach division of the Ogden City Police Department contacted me, probably through one of our other members, about three years ago,” Konzen said. “This will be our third year that we’re running it. They have a Coffee with Cops that they do throughout the community at different coffee shops throughout the year and we thought it would be a good idea to switch it to a “Cocoa with Cops” during this time of the year at the hot chocolate booth at Christmas Village.”

He said around 10-12 officers usually attend, setting up games for kids, interacting with the public and even helping out with hot chocolate sales.

Konzen said the sales go toward an important cause.

“All of the proceeds for the Shoes for Tots fundraiser go toward the purchase of shoes for kids in the Weber and Ogden school districts,” he said. “The fundraiser that we’ve been doing has reached out to a lot of kids in this area because there is a need for shoes. There’s a lot of kids that just can’t afford shoes, it’s one of the last things their parents usually worry about. Until we brought the program into the community’s eye, we didn’t really realize the need for it.”

He said it was a real eye opener when they realized how large the need was for kids shoes in the community.

“We provide that need through the Weber School Foundation,” he said. “They simply get a request from counselors in the area and the counselors are aware of what kids have these needs, and we simply provide the shoes to their resource center.”

Konzen said the sale of hot chocolate and cookies at Christmas Village, on average, raises $20,000-$30,000 each year that goes toward Shoes for Tots.

“It’s been a very worthwhile program,” he said. “We have a lot of nice thank-you letters from schools and parents on the program.”

He said that members of the Ogden City Fire Department will also be participating in the hot chocolate stand on Dec. 16.