Food Program of the Homeless Veterans Initiative

The counting of any population of homeless can never be exact for obvious reasons, but the figures on who could become homeless are even harder to establish. A person can be at risk of becoming homeless if they are paying out more than half their income in rent, or stacking, where there are multiple non-related people living in the same house.

Many veterans have small fixed incomes and are living on the edge. If one thing happens to upset the financial balance they become homeless. Veterans for Peace have become widely known in Milwaukee’s veteran community for being able to help a veteran who is in such a situation.

The food program is one way that we help ease the financial strain on a veteran.

This program started with the idea that we would furnish the veterans living in our veteran houses a good variety of quality food

By providing a weekly box of good quality food we help the veteran in several ways. Homeless and low income veterans have less access to good healthy food and as a result they develop more health issues than someone who eats a larger variety of healthier food.

. A good diet would help get the veterans healthier and then keep them healthier.

We quickly saw an added benefit that came from this. Living in this country sometimes we take for granted many things that a lot of people, even in this country, don’t have. With a variety, they had a choice of what they wanted to eat and with a kitchen, a place to prepare it themselves. This has gone a long way in building back self esteem for the veterans.

Now, not only do we supply the food to our veteran houses, we deliver over 80boxes of food each week to veterans and their families who are at risk.

In this land of plenty, no one should go hungry