Since 1990, Veterans Inc has been providing assistance to homeless and in-need veterans in Worcester County. We’ve often said that there are two words that should never be spoken together – homeless veteran. Nor should there be such a thing as a hungry veteran. For 25 years, Veterans Inc has been working toward the day that both of those concepts are inconceivable.
In 2013, the Office for Community Planning and Development reported that more than 60,000 veterans nationwide were homeless at any given point during the year. In New England, 2,100 veterans were experiencing homelessness at some point during the year. Approximately 1 in 4 people experiencing homelessness are veterans.
Veterans Inc takes a “whole veteran” approach to combating homelessness and hunger among veterans. Rather than addressing just the issue of homelessness, the organization devotes its resources to helping veterans and their families in nearly every possible way, through mental health and substance abuse services, food pantry services, a hot meals program, case management services, health services, community activities, legal referrals and even a vehicle donation program.
The organization was also the first in the country to offer in-house services to female veterans and their dependent children. The Women and Children’s Program includes transitional housing, assistance in accessing permanent housing, child care, legal referrals and more.
The results speak for themselves. Veterans Inc has an astounding 85% success rate in finding permanent housing for its clients.
Fighting Hunger Among Veterans
Veterans Inc provides hot meals daily at its Grove Street facility, as well as running a food pantry that does distribution twice monthly, on the second and fourth Thursday of ever month.There is always a need for volunteers to help prepare, serve and clean up after meals, as well as to help with food distribution on food pantry days.
How You Can Help
Veterans Inc relies on private contributions to provide many of its services. In addition to volunteer opportunities, the organization accepts cash donations, and donations of canned goods, dry goods, men’s and women’s clothing and vehicles. You’ll find a wish list of the most-needed items for each of their programs, as well as information about running food drives and clothing drives. Veterans Inc is also always looking for volunteers willing to donate services or offer tutoring. For more information:
| Want to volunteer or design a Donation Drive? |  (508) 791-1213 ext. 196volunteer@veteransinc.org |
| General Donation Questions | donations@veteransinc.org |
| To make a monetary donation | (508) 791-1213 ext. 123 |
| To sponsor/attend fundraising events | (508) 791-1213 ext. 123 |
Deb- I am no longer receiving your “Days of Giving” posts- please include me in your e-mail list. Importantly, I need to correct a statistic that I provided @ the Food for Good conference. Nationwide, college students that are insecure are an average of 31% of all students enrolled- not 61% as I had written.( I put together materials the night before) There was a school that had a 59% rate and one even higher in the 70% category, but they average 31% countrywide, to the best of my knowledge Thank you. I look forward to your well-written posts, Judy Knight Hunger Outreach Team Worcester State University 508-929-8957
On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 4:23 PM, Worcester Food & Active Living Policy Counc