Across the country, residents and businesses responded to news of the Thursday attack in Dallas that left five police officers dead by heading straight to their local police departments with food, flowers and other messages of solidarity.

Southeastern Connecticut, where police have been using their Facebook pages to document everything from gifts of homemade cakes to moments of prayer near their headquarters, is no exception.

In Montville, where police have posted messages of thanks every day since the shooting — they’ve vowed to “flood your newsfeed with good” for as long as they can — people have showered police with pizza, doughnuts and, in one case, a pile of rolls, deli meat, lettuce, tomatoes and condiments that successfully fed at least one full shift.

In another instance, someone left a single rose next to a cruiser and leaned a card displaying an Apache blessing up against it.

Throughout it all, police said many have walked into the department simply to hug officers or shake their hands and thank them for their service.

“It always makes us feel good,” Montville police Lt. Leonard Bunnell said of the community’s support. “We know it’s out there, but we’re just facing a lot of negativity lately from some isolated incidents.”

Bunnell, who said he was “deeply saddened” upon learning of the tragedy in Dallas, said he and other local police realize the potential for such an attack exists everywhere.

“The common denominator that supports that type of situation is mental illness,” he said. “We deal with mental illness here every day. We know we can be affected as well as anybody — small-town Montville is no exception.”

Departments from East Lyme and Waterford to Groton and Norwich have shared stories of the generosity and joked about how they’re going to have to get gym memberships because of all of the food.

In Ledyard, one local child wrote a poem for the police, beginning it like this: “Thank you police, for all that you do. You keep our country safe, under the red, white and blue!”

Another, 17-year-old Ashley Rossi, baked a cake for the officers, writing the words “Thank you for all you do” in cursive across it.

“Even though she’s my daughter, it was a nice surprise,” Ashley’s mother, Jacqueline Rossi, said of her daughter’s decision to make the cake. “It’s nice to see that somebody of her age would think to do something like that.”

Businesses, too, have reached out to police. On Saturday, Tío Juan’s Margaritas Mexican Restaurant, which has a location in Mystic, announced that it would provide free dine-in meals to law enforcement members at all levels and their immediate families at each of its more than 20 New England locations.

Michael Caldwell, marketing team manager with Margaritas Management Group, said the event, which is slated to last through Wednesday, “felt like the right thing to do.”

“We take our involvement in the community pretty seriously,” Caldwell said, explaining that Margaritas often hosts things such as fundraisers and education outreach programs. “This seemed like a natural extension of what we do on day-to-day basis.”

Leah Van Ness, co-owner of Montville Florist, said her company decided to deliver flowers to the Montville Police Department Friday in part because of its strong sense of community.

“We have supported the Montville Police Department in every opportunity, as they have supported our business as well,” she said.

Montville Florist first delivered flowers to them after Sept. 11, 2001, Van Ness said, in an effort to acknowledge the sacrifices law enforcement officials make.

“You can’t judge an entire group of individuals’ careers based on the actions of a few,” Van Ness said.

New London Deputy Police Chief Peter Reichard, who said people walked up to officers and other first responders throughout Sailfest and thanked them, said he appreciates the gestures.

"As a police officer, you may not know that your interaction or enforcement action with someone changed their life, but they'll know," Reichard said. "It feels good when, years down the line, someone comes up and thanks you for something you may not know had such a big impact."

l.boyle@theday.com