How we serve Thanksgiving program to our Veterans.
- We identify Veteran facility and household through various program partners.
- Recipients should be American Veterans that had served in Military.
- AVCA determines the needs of the veteran or veteran facility through our program partners.
- AVCA schedules food deliveries 4-5 days prior to Thanksgiving to our Household Veterans and facilities.
- We do after work reporting and recommendations after the program was launched to make sure we improve our service.
AVCA THANKSGIVING
Description of the Service – Through this service we distribute boxes containing Thanksgiving food to individual Veterans and their families for their holiday celebration. The food is provided so the Veterans can prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for themselves and their families.
Reason for the Service — There are several reasons for this service:
- People need food – The Veterans in the communities we serve are generally poor and sometimes have difficulty meeting their needs for food. The Thanksgiving meal box ensures that Elder will have nutritious food for the Holiday.
- The holidays can be stressful – Many of the Veterans do not have the funds to make special purchases during the Holidays. Some would go without a turkey or a special meal on Thanksgiving. This causes stress for individuals and families. Our food delivery just prior to Thanksgiving gives the Veteran Elders the opportunity to provide the special food for the meal for their families.
- Accessibility – Many of the communities and reservations we serve may not have a grocery store or convenience market and would have to travel to obtain these holiday items. Costs of travel and the food can be expensive for a Veteran on a fixed income.
- The service provides a volunteer opportunity – AVCA volunteers are required to promote the distribution in the community, repackage the food into in boxes, distribute the boxes and home deliver boxes to our Veteran Elders. These volunteers have the opportunity to feel productive, serve their community and get familiar with others in the community and the partner. We know that this helps create change in communities.
Product – Each Veterans meal box distributed to Elders contains a variety of holiday fixings. This can vary each year depending on pricing, but typical boxes will include:
Turkey, Instant Potatoes Dry stuffing mix Canned Cranberries
Here are the breakdown of fruit, veggies, and et al.
Organic Produce
- Apples
- Bananas,
- Pears
- Pineapple
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Kale
- Spinach
- Tomatoes
$200 (optional Depending on the need of a veteran)to assist with daily living as they are housebound due to the sheltering in place order and California Wildfires which have impacted the air quality throughout the state.
Window of Operation – The deadline for Thanksgiving requests is October. We make community selections and order food by the end of October. We work with partners to plan for their distributions until November (2nd week). We also begin deliveries the second week of November.
Who is Served – Each Veteran elder receiving a meal must be at least 62 years of age. If there is more than one eligible Elder in a household, they are limited to one meal in order to serve more Elder households. Program partners submit a list of names of Elders on the reservation. The food provided in the meals is enough to serve 6 people.