About Meals for Vets
Our Mission and Values
We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to feed Texas Veterans with limited income. Located in Fredericksburg, Texas, we cover the entire state with a dedicated staff that are Veterans or have a Veteran family connection. We also have numerous enthusiastic volunteers who help us serve the entire state of Texas.
Our unique mission addresses food insecurity with Veterans who are primarily 59 years and younger, or those who have been placed on a meal provider’s wait list due to lack of federal funding. Veterans we serve may also live outside of a meal provider’s service area, don’t qualify, or have dietary restrictions.
With generous support of the Texas Veterans Commission, foundations, and individual contributors, we arrange for and fund meals that are delivered to the Veteran’s location. For student Veterans, meals are discreetly provided by their college or university or shipped to their place of residence.
Veterans are often referred to us by another Veteran, family member, a VA Hospital caseworker, or by the Veteran Support Coordinators who work with schools and universities throughout Texas. We often refer Veterans to other support organizations for assistance as needed.
Our nation's recently discharged service members often find themselves reentering communities without the structured support systems they once knew and relied upon in the armed forces. Our goal is to eliminate hunger in the Texas Veteran population. We would appreciate your consideration in helping us reach our goal.
If you or someone you know needs assistance, please give us a call at (830) 992-3375.
Numbers Tell Their Stories
- 21 million veterans in America (9 percent of the adult population).
- 25% of veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan report problems being able to acquire food for themselves or their families (2015 study published in Public Health Nutrition). With 2.5 million who served in Afghanistan and Iraq that means 625,000 are struggling with food insecurity.
- 14% of general population is food insecure.
Sources: U.S Department of Labor (2014), U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Face the Facts: George Washington University, Hunger Solutions.org, National Veterans Foundation, PTSD Foundation of America, ProPublica.org, ABCNews.com
The Facts and Stats
Key issues further intensifying food insecurity among veterans under 60 and their families:
- Hunger – An estimated 2 million veterans battle food insecurity.
- Unemployment – While the unemployment rate for veterans of all ages tracks at about 5.3 (below the overall U.S. level), the rate shoots up to 7.2% for those younger veterans who served on active duty after September 2011.
- Poverty – Almost 1.5 million veterans live in poverty in the United States.
- Disabilities – 25% of recent veterans reported service-connected disabilities in 2011.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – 1 in 5 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are diagnosed with PTSD. And veterans account for 20 percent of U.S. suicides.
- Isolation – For veterans struggling with combat trauma and other issues, 2 out of 3 marriages will fail.
- Homelessness – One third of our nation’s homeless are veterans.
- Lost Records – The U.S. Army’s failure to create and maintain adequate field records has complicated and drastically delayed the benefits claim process for thousands of veterans since the Gulf War in 1991.
- Suicide – From 2001 to 2014, the Veterans Administration found that suicides among U.S. adult civilians increased 23 percent while veteran suicides increased 32 percent — meaning that the risk of suicide is significantly greater for veterans than civilians (after controlling for age and gender).