National Commander Message

Coleman Nee, Commander

Tackle food insecurity this holiday season

For many, the holiday season is both a time for giving and a time for gathering with family and friends to celebrate the blessings in their lives. For others, it’s a time full of stress, sacrifice and compromise, especially for veterans facing food insecurity.

While 1 in 8 U.S. households face this gut-wrenching problem—not having access to sufficient food or food of an adequate quality to meet one’s basic needs—that number rises to 1 in 5 for active military and veteran families and is most common for older veterans and those with school-age children, according to a study from the Military Family Advisory Network. On top of that, food insecurity dramatically increases between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I’m sure many of you would agree that veterans should not have to decide between getting presents for their children and grandchildren or eating something more nutritional than instant noodles for a week.

But I’m not one for doom and gloom, which is why I look at this holiday season as an incredible opportunity to fight a very real problem in our community and make a difference in the lives of the veterans we serve.

To accomplish this, chapters and departments must first increase their focus on food insecurity by viewing it through the lens of a voluntary service project. Members and leaders can easily reach out to community groups to secure spots to serve meals, deliver food or dinners to older veterans who are alone during the holidays, or work the logistics of food pantries. And if our members and leaders do so with the intention of identifying veterans for whom we can file claims or help access the health services and other programs and benefits they’ve earned for themselves and their families, then we’re one step closer to eliminating food insecurity from their lives and bringing them into the DAV family.

Our most precious resource is our time, and I know many of us have our own issues to deal with during the holidays. But I can assure you all that if we give what time we can in this fight—even if only an hour—by securing food or delivering meals, then our organization will have helped keep our promise.

Our brothers- and sisters-in-arms facing food insecurity will instead be able to sit at their tables free of stress. Veteran parents and grandparents will be reminded that their sacrifices for our nation mean they won’t have to compromise between putting a smile on a child’s face with a gift or filling their stomachs with a healthy and hearty meal. And most importantly, all of us will be able to gather with family and friends to count our blessings this holiday season.

If you want to find out more about the National Commander, you can find his biography here.