MAZON Partnership
A food security success story: West Virginia VAMC donated more than 80,000 pounds of food to Veterans
Ms. Monique Smith, social work executive at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center (VAMC) in West Virginia, said that when a Veteran in her area needs food, she and her colleagues will do whatever it takes to get it to them.
When a Veteran was discharged from the VAMC and had to quarantine in a motel due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ms. Smith helped him get two weeks’ worth of food—and a can opener, cutlery, and other necessary items.
Since October 2016, the Martinsburg VA has donated more than 80,000 pounds of food to more than 2,500 Veterans in need, thanks to donations from the American Legion and Daughters of the American Revolution, staff food drives, and a food pantry supported in part by Feeding America and the West Virginia-based Mountaineer Food Bank.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) established a pilot program to open food pantries at VAMCs throughout the country, including in Martinsburg. Mountaineer supplied food, and Ms. Smith worked with fellow social workers to identify Veterans in need. The team invited those Veterans to a series of recurring pop-up food pantries, which supplied more than 6,000 pounds of food to Veterans in 2016 and 2017. Then the pantries became permanent.
“We decided to have a ready supply of shelf-stable food for Veterans in need after a couple years of doing this pilot,” Ms. Smith explained.
Now, there is food readily available for any Veteran who needs it, including Veterans who aren’t coming to the VAMC directly.
“Whenever we identify a Veteran in need, we will get the food to him. We have a team of social workers who do what’s called home based primary care. They will deliver the food to Vets. Even during pandemic, they’d leave it on their doorstep,” Ms. Smith explained.
Such home delivery services are critical for some Veterans who are food insecure—which means they don’t have regular access to enough healthy food—because they may live in very rural areas without transportation access or have a health condition that prevents them from leaving the house.
As a social worker, Ms. Smith said she’s observed that food insecurity can be driven by many factors—for example, some Veterans have felt a stigma about visiting food banks in their areas. It’s more comfortable when they visit the VAMC food bank, Ms. Smith explained.
“Coming to the VA is very helpful—they know this is their VA,” she said.
The success of the Martinsburg VAMC is just one example of how VA is supporting Veterans’ food security. Partnerships throughout VA offer Veterans increased access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, food programs, and healthy meal planning. Within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) collaborates with two food security-focused organizations-- MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, and the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). Learn more about what those organizations are doing for Veterans, especially during Hunger Action Month in September, here, here, here, and here.
Learn more about the VHA National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships’ other partnership work at va.gov/healthpartnerships.
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Posted September 27, 2021
