Grateful Denver vets carry food bags home
Volunteers give 5 tons of food at VA hospital event
E.J. Walton charged across the lawn clutching two paper bags of groceries, one of several trips he made on Friday. The 79-yearold Air Force veteran was part of a group of volunteers who served more than 200 veterans about 5 tons of food.
“This was my fourth month volunteering for them. I’ll keep coming as long as they’ll have me,” said Walton, who wore a black Vietnam veterans ball cap and a Soldiers’ Angels T-shirt over his button-down shirt. “We can’t let the veterans give up.”
Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit with just seven paid employees, worked with Walton and other volunteers to distribute the groceries at the VA Hospital on Clermont Street. Volunteers from Wells Fargo and Lockheed Martin were also there, sorting bags of potatoes, Pop-Tarts and other snacks into paper bags. Soldiers’ Angels partnered with the Food Bank of the Rockies for Friday’s giveaway.
“The word grateful doesn’t begin to touch how grateful we are,” said Michael Ospina, a veteran from Denver. “For some of us, this is it. The appreciation is unreal.” He came to the VA in a carpool with a few other people staying in his veterans’ residence.
Solders’ Angels works with 40 other VA Hospitals, by operating mobile food pantries at each. They visit the same locations about once a month and serve over 200 veterans each time, “usually towards the end of the month to give people enough food to last them for a few weeks,” said Kristin Henning, the VA voluntary coordinator from Soldiers’ Angels.
Most of the veterans they serve are homeless or at-risk and fought in Vietnam or during operation Desert Storm, Henning said. “We serve anyone in the five branches of the military, but most of their clients are ex-Army or Air Force,” she said.
The volunteers filled paper bags with popcorn, marshmallows, eggs and coffee, among other foods. People on foot holding backpacks and black pushcarts lined down the block. Veterans in cars idled next to them.
“I love this; it’s great,” said Michael Johnson, a former Marine. “This will last me for a good couple of weeks.” He traveled to the VA from his home near Evans Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard.
Amy Teller of Wells Fargo was among those loading bags on Friday.
“It’s a great program, and I’m more than happy to help,” she said.