SAN ANTONIO – We continue our coverage to honor our veterans and hope to educate the community about some of the struggles they may be experiencing.
We take a closer look at the food insecurity veterans and active military members face daily. But thanks to community partners, service members can keep food on their table.
“They always ask me where do you get this food from and I say soldier’s angels,” says army veteran Darlene Robinson.
Robinson is grateful. She says the extra food from Soldiers Angels each month not only sustains her family but friends and neighbors too.
“It’s very abundant you might get 10 to 15 cabbages, so rather for it to go bad, I share it,” says Robinson.
Feeding America officials say 1 in 9 working-age veterans live in food-insecure households.
Food insecurity not only affects our veterans, but our active military as well, JBSA provides resources to those members who need the help.
Richard Gomez is a certified personal finance counselor with Joint Base San Antonio’s Military and Family Readiness Center.
“I average about 3 appointments a day, and it’s been like that for about a year now we don’t know how many are suffering in silence,” says Gomez.
But the numbers highlight the challenge, Feeding America says 1 in 4 active-duty service members were food insecure in 2020. Military officials say some of the reasons why military families face hunger include: lower salaries at lower ranks, high unemployment rates for military spouses, and higher cost of goods and living expenses. He says active military receive about $452 food stipend a month. He says for some it’s not enough to meet the needs of their family.
“However when the cost of goods rises and you have a growing family, even if you have family with special needs that’s not anywhere near what they can or what it needs for a family to sustain,” says Gomez.
“When we do our surveys, they indicate they wouldn’t have been able to feed their families for that month without the food support we provide,” says Amy Palmer CEO & President of Soldiers’ Angels.
Palmer says they do a food distribution every month.
“We order about 30,000 pounds at a time, we have a great partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank that helps us with this,” says Palmer.
She adds once they open the food distribution slots, they’re filled in 6 minutes or less.
“Our goal is to make sure every family receives at least 75 pounds of food per family we’re able to get at least 100 pounds, sometimes 150 pounds per family,” says Palmer.
Families like Robinson’s would likely experience hunger if it weren’t for the generosity of organizations like Soldiers’ Angels.
If you would like more information on Soldiers’ Angels and how to get on their food distribution list as a veteran or active military service member, CLICK HERE.
If you would like more information on JBSA’s Military and Family Readiness Centers CLICK HERE.
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