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A FOOD PANTRY FOR VETERANS WHO SHOULD NOT HAVE

TO GO HUNGRY -- "With each bag of food they give out, they

also affirm to a veteran who sacrificed much so we can live

the life we live, that we do care and appreciate what he

or she did for us. And that is a good thing."

 

 

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A food pantry for veterans who should not have to go hungry

By NOREEN O'DONNELL
JOURNAL NEWS COLUMNIST

At the very least, veterans shouldn't go hungry.

Not today on the Fourth of July. Not on any day.

There's a food pantry at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Montrose for men and women who otherwise would not have enough to eat. If that surprises you, it surprised me, too.

More than 160 families get assistance each month, which breaks down to 315 adults, 56 children and 148 elderly men and women. They are unemployed or not making enough money to get through the month, under stress and unable to keep up with their bills.

For many of them, it is difficult to ask for help, says the supervisor, Duke Searles. But then their need overcomes their pride.

He tells them: "Don't be ashamed. It's here for you."

He tells them that they have earned it.

Searles, 61, knows the food pantry firsthand. He returned from Vietnam in 1968 with post-traumatic stress disorder and a drug problem, neither of which he faced fully until the 1990s, when he got into a program at the Montrose hospital. At one point, he was living on $748 a month and his rent was $450.

"I needed help,' he said. "I couldn't afford to buy food."

The pantry opened in 1996 as part of the services offered to homeless veterans by the VA Hudson Valley Health Care System, said Luis Paulino, a social worker who is the program's coordinator and himself a veteran of the Army's Special Forces. At the start, it helped 34 formerly homeless or mentally ill veterans and their families and it has grown from there.

Last month, the pantry's staff was honored by The Food Bank for Westchester for its work. Searles, his wife, Ellen, and four other Vietnam veterans, Fred London Jr., George Whealton, James Price and Leonard Thompson, all volunteer their time.

They give out more than food to veterans, said The Food Bank's executive director, Christina Rohatynskyj.

"With each bag of food they give out, they also affirm to a veteran who sacrificed much so we can live the life we live, that we do care and appreciate what he (or) she did for us. And that is a good thing," she said in a statement. But she added: "The fact that our veterans do not have enough resources and support from our government to meet all of their basic needs until they get on their feet is a disgrace and unacceptable."

Overall, poverty rates are lower than average among veterans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 6 percent of veterans lived in poverty in 2005, compared with about 13 percent for the adult population as a whole. Younger veterans were more likely to be poor.

The pantry spends about $100,000 a year buying food from The Food Bank at discounted prices, Paulino said. It gets grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies, but $5,000 to $10,000 a year it had received from the VA has dried up for now. Searles and others represent $50,000 in salaries saved, he said.

The American Legion in Peekskill collected two tubs of food from ShopRite supermarket shoppers to donate to the pantry in time for the holiday. It will hold another food drive for Veterans Day in November.

Those who come for the food range in age from 19 to their late 80s, veterans of World War II to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I let them know that they don't have to thank us," Searles said. "They did their job. And this is our duty to give it back to them."

Searles and his wife are making a second career of the food pantry. And they are married for the second time. She had divorced him because of his drug abuse.

He was driving minivans, station wagons and other vehicles for the Bronx VA Hospital, even taking patients to treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and all the time suffering from the symptoms himself: nightmares, shakes, sweats.

"I never associated myself with it, but I knew I had all the symptoms," he said.

Then he had an accident driving and today is retired on a VA pension and disability. His wife had worked for the Corporation for National and Community Service and knew that she would volunteer somewhere when she retired.

What was left to ask?

"How am I today?" Searles said. "A lot of medication, a lot of therapy, but I'm OK."

He's an example that your life can change, Paulino said.

Said Searles: "I knew God had a plan for me. I'm just following his orders."

 

The food pantry at the VA hospital in Montrose is open to veterans on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. until noon and again on Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Unemployed veterans and those who meet a means test are eligible for free food. If you would like to donate to the pantry - food or money - call Volunteer Services at the hospital at 914-737-4400, Ext. 3714 or 3715.

 

Reach Noreen O'Donnell at nodonnel@lohud.com  or 914-694-5017.

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Larry Scott  --