Veteran's call leads to restart of Veterans Corps delivery of food that stopped during pandemic

Amber Rupinta Image
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Veteran's call leads to food assistance for Triangle veterans
Volunteers with Raleigh-based U.S. Veterans Corps plan to make an emergency food run and restart the delivery program.

Raleigh-based U.S. Veterans Corps is answering the call to help provide food assistance to Triangle veterans after learning there's a big need following the pandemic.

The nonprofit was delivering meals to veteran affordable housing complexes in Raleigh and Durham during the pandemic but paused the program. This week, they received a call from a veteran in Raleigh asking for the food delivery to resume.

"Our main contact had passed away and we didn't know."

The veteran says inflation and the end of covid-era extra food assistance benefits have contributed to the increased need.

"We haven't done it in a while because our main contact had passed away and we didn't know and so we hadn't delivered food," explained Andy Ladner with U.S. Veterans Corps.

The nonprofit is now planning an emergency food run to help.

"We'll do shopping this week. We do it with different volunteer groups," Ladner said. "We will pack and then deliver to that site. And, since that happened, we're going to start going back on a regular schedule for these guys again. So, it'll probably happen about once a month."

U.S. Veterans Corps volunteers will make an emergency food run to purchase canned goods, produce, bread, and meats. They plan to deliver boxes of food to two veteran transition housing complexes in Raleigh and Durham Friday, June 16.

RELATED | NC military families struggle to qualify for food assistance SNAP program

North Carolina's food banks see uptick in demand as COVID relief ends

WIC office opens at Fort Bragg to give military families access to healthy food