Groups target veteran food insecurity in region with donations

Dayton region home to 2nd-largest population of veterans in Ohio.

Organizations devoted to higher education and veterans’ issues, along with a grocery business, are teaming up to make sure veterans have enough to eat.

The Strategic Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE), through its myVeteran Community and the Bob Woodruff Foundation, are together addressing food insecurity for veterans in the Dayton region, the groups said this week.

Ohio has the sixth-largest population of veterans in the country, with the Dayton region being home to the second-largest population in Ohio, the organizations said.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation, through its “Got Your 6” Initiative, has donated $30,000 in three increments to SOCHE to assist in fighting veteran food insecurity.

In addition to the $30,000 grant from the Woodruff Foundation, Meijer has added $5,000 to the

grant.

“SOCHE is proud to be a Bob Woodruff Foundation

partner,” SOCHE President Cassie Barlow said in a release. “Our thanks go out to the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies for this funding to help combat food insecurity among veterans and their families,”

The organizations cite the Veterans Administration in saying veterans are almost twice as likely to be food insecure as the general population.” The three increments of $10,000 went to the Dayton Foodbank to serve veterans and their families and to veteran centers at regional universities and colleges.

MARSHALL GORBY / STAFF Ashtyn Crabtree (left) and Bridgett Hobbs load food into the trunk of a car Aug. 16 during a food distribution at the Dixie Twin Drive-In hosted by the Foodbank. Organizations have recently teamed up to make sure military veterans have enough to eat.