Stop & Shop celebrated Veteran”™s Day with a donation of 1,000 Thanksgiving turkeys to Feeding Westchester, Westchester County”™s largest nonprofit hunger-relief organization, in an effort to help meet the unprecedented need for holiday assistance. A group of local Vietnam War veterans were on hand at Stop & Shop”™s 154 Westchester Ave. location in White Plains to load the Feeding Westchester truck as part of the supermarket chain”™s Turkey Express program.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are twice as likely to be food insecure compared with the general population.
“We”™re here to help those who have helped our country,” said Duke Searles, Vietnam War veteran and volunteer supervisor of VA Hospital Supportive Housing Food Pantry. “I know what it is like to not want to ask for help, but we have an abundance of food for the veterans and their families through the VA pantry, and so many other services available for them to get the help they deserve.”
“We are grateful to Stop & Shop for their generous support once again through the Turkey Express program and honored to have the assistance of Duke and his fellow Vietnam War veterans,” said Feeding Westchester President and CEO Karen C. Erren. “The pandemic has created unprecedented need that isn”™t limited to certain zip codes or professions”¦.”
Due to the pandemic, Feeding Westchester distributed 123 % more food than from the same time period last year.
Stop & Shop”™s Turkey Express program will deliver nearly 22,000 turkeys to hunger relief organizations in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey this holiday season.
