Operation Homefront's Holiday Meals for Military Program A Huge Success
The
Holiday Meals for Military program has concluded for 2012. Thank you to everyone for making this year's program so successful! And thanks to all of our
wonderful sponsors who helped us provide over 5000 meals to military families at 17 events across the country!
The Holiday Meals for Military Program began Thanksgiving 2009 as a result of a chance encounter in a supermarket in Utica, N.Y., near Ft. Drum. A soldier, his wife, and infant had a handful of grocery items they could not afford, so a Beam Inc. employee picked up the $12 cost for the groceries. Since that time, the program has grown from initially providing 500 meals kits to military families in 2009 to providing 5,200 this holiday season.
The 5,200 meal kits, which included all the grocery items necessary for a full holiday meal, were distributed to lower and mid-grade ranking military families, E-1 thru E-6, at seventeen bases nationwide in December 2012, including Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Knox, Ky.; Great Lakes Naval Base, Ill.; and MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
“Military families are not only dealing with the effects of war, but also the current economic difficulties,” said Jim Knotts, President and CEO of Operation Homefront. “So often these families are split up during the holiday season from deployments. This year, let’s help them bring the celebration home, and show that we are thankful for the sacrifices that they have made for our country.”
Distributing these meals was an important undertaking carried out in military communities and at local Operation Homefront Field Offices across the nation. For more information on how to donate to the cause, please log on to www.HolidayMealsForMilitary.org.
In addition to Beam Inc.,
sponsors for the program include Walmart, Chinet, Cargill, Southern Wine & Spirits, Mrs. Smith’s, and Nestle Waters.