Committee operating food drive for veterans
Veterans may be able to start off 2015 eating healthier through the efforts of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program Committee at VA Butler Healthcare, which is running a food drive this month.
Non-expired, nonperishable food items will be collected throughout January for veterans in need, said Karen Dunn, coordinator of the committee.
Employees, volunteers and the community are encouraged to bring the food items to food drop-off locations at VA Butler Healthcare, 325 New Castle Road.
Drop-off points are:
• Primary Care Main Entrance (Basement);
• Main Entrance (First Floor);
• Canteen; and
• Wellness Center.
“We will pick it up, too, if somebody wants to take up a collection at their workplace or something,” said Dunn.
“Everything I want to do is promote healthy living,” Dunn said. “We want it to be healthy stuff, but food is food.”
To locate veterans in need of food, Dunn said, “We work really close with the homeless program and social workers.”
She added the only requirement to receive food is that the recipient is a veteran.
“We collect food the whole month. There is a drop-off in giving after the holidays,” Dunn said. And she said in January many veterans may be forced to choose whether to pay for heat or food.
The food will be distributed to veterans through Butler Healthcare's homeless program or through referrals from social workers, said Dunn.Dunn said this is the fourth food drive undertaken by VA Butler Healthcare.There may be many veterans in need in the county, said Damian Hambley of Boyers, who runs the Veterans in Need program that provides veterans with furniture and food.Hambley has been running the charity for seven years and estimates it's helped nearly 1,000 veterans transition to independent living by providing them with furniture, as well as nonperishable food and paper products.“During Christmas time there was 50 to 75 veterans” in need of his services, Hambley said.“I help up to four a day. It all depends. I've taken as many as 11 a day,” he said.“There are more veterans in Butler County than any other county because they are staying here instead of going back to where they're from” after completing treatment at VA Butler Healthcare, Hambley said.Ron Christopher, Butler Healthcare's homeless peer support specialist, who works with homeless veterans, said last year's drive delivered food to 50 individual veterans and 25 veterans' families in Butler, Clarion, Armstong, Mercer and Lawrence counties.The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program at VA Butler Healthcare, Dunn said, does more than collect food for veterans.It is teaching veterans how to live a healthier lifestyle today and in the future through VA programs such as MOVE! (Weight Management Program for Veterans), My HealtheVet, Tobacco Cessation, Nutritional Services and more.
