Veterans Corner: Mobile Food Pantry A Success for Needy Vets

By Dorothy Meindok

The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant

Just showing up for vets made a debut this Wednesday at The Coffee Connection in Texas City on the Emmett F. Lowry Expressway! 

The Galveston County Veteran Mobile Food Pantry’s inaugural event was a great success and will now be a monthly food event for veterans and family members to benefit from. Together the collaborative effort helped feed the families of over 70 veterans. The giveaway included shampoos, hygiene items, milk, bananas, hothouse cucumbers, bison and more! Service dogs gave licks and nods of approval as they drove in with their veterans at the wheel while the car was loaded up with good, wholesome donated foods (I’m working on bringing some dog treats for them next time, so if anyone is inclined to help that initiative, please contact SERVE or Combined Arms with the information below on how you can get your donation accepted and distributed, whether for veterans or their helpful pet pals). 

The monthly event is planned for the third Wednesday of each month; the location is 9300 Emmett F Lowry Expressway, #222, Texas City, Texas 77591. To pre-register as a participant recipient for the event, one may visit combinedarms.force.com. Please note, that if you are a veteran or you know one that is a shut-in, there is some assistance in delivery on distribution day if pre-registered, so plans can be made accordingly. Be sure to mention that in the registration process online. A good idea would be to register at least 72 hours in advance, which can be done from a smartphone or computer. If in-person help is needed, please contact The Galveston County Food Bank for more information and direction. Their location is listed below. 

In other news, founded & run by USA Veteran Randall Butler, TX Hero Headquarters© is helping raise awareness and funding for veteran organizations that impact locally as well as nationally via The Great Guitar Giveaway! There are seven veteran centric groups to designate where your $10 goes; you can pick one or all, because no matter your choice, good things will result. Here’s some common denominators that will surely happen just by supporting this event: 

1. You’ll help veterans heal.
2. You get a chance to win up to $10K in musical healing gear. If that isn’t your thing, no worries: resell it or donate it because one grand prize is a $1,500 gift certificate to Danny D’s Guitar Hacienda where there are affordable ukuleles available. If you win, you could supply a local music school/church program with 20 ukuleles for their art and music curriculums, just one of many options to keep paying it all forward. 
3. You can choose from helping them all or specify a single organization. Here’s some of the beneficiaries for the current event:
   1. Vietnam Veterans of America #685 Galveston County – in support of the moving, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, coming this summer, open to all of the public to visit. 
   2. Guitars 4 Vets – a 10 year 501(c)(3) that brings musical healing to veterans.
   3. Love Hope Ranch – an Eagala©  qualified, equine therapy option for veterans, first responders & family located in North Harris County with growth ambitions for a location in Galveston County run by Missy Craft, a Texas gal & horse whisperer. 
   4. V4CR – Veterans 4 Child rescue – Veterans & first responders united to end child and human trafficking, founded, and run by retired USN SEAL Craig “Sawman” Sawyer. 
   5. Flanders Fields – a veteran run organization whose current, special mission is to extract and relocate allies, women & children abandoned in the Afghanistan war pullout; just this week, this organization safely relocated some of these allies & families right here in the Houston/Galveston metroplex. 

The ask is $10 to sign up and support electronically or one may enter free via USPS, First Class Mail, so see the website TXHeroHeadquarters.org for more details & links to each organization that benefits. 

Next week, we’ll highlight the results of the call for volunteers mentioned in last week’s Veterans Corner regarding Texas City’s manpower need for Sunday’s Easter Seals of Greater Houston’s disabled veteran, home cleanup assistance call.  

See you then! 

Dorothy 

Resources: 

Galveston County Food Bank, 624 4th Ave N, Texas City, TX 77590 Phone: (409) 945-4232.

Dorothy Meindok is the Veterans Consultant for The Post Newspaper. She served in the United States Navy and is currently a lawyer advocating for the rights of our nation’s veterans. Her column appears on Sunday.