One of our three focus programs is that of Suicide Prevention. Since 2017 we have directly, hands
on, assisted in the prevention of 8 veteran and 1 spouse suicide. In 2019 the Veterans Administration would acknowledge 22 veterans a day, every day committing suicide. We felt this was outrageous. This suicide rate includes both male and female veterans, that felt no other way out. In 2020 the Veterans Administration changed their number to 20 suicides per day. In 2022 the Veterans Administration conducted a study and discovered that a veteran care giver was 4 times more likely to commit suicide versus a civilian caregiver.

We have never agreed with the Veterans Administration numbers on suicide because they only count a confirmed suicide by note or witness. This does not include suicide by overdose, single vehicle accidents, self-inflected injury, and other ideas that can create a final ending.

We understand that the reasons for suicide are as many as the clouds in the sky. That is why our other two programs were designed to be a means to suicide prevention through housing and food.

Our program entails providing information on prevention and publicizing the phone number to call for help. We are not certified to talk people down, but if we get a call from a caregiver, we will show up to help secure the weapons, or just quietly talk to the veteran until official help arrives. We are also available to provide information to the caller once help has arrived. We also ensure that medics and law enforcement understand that the patient is a veteran that suffers from service-connected issues.

The newest program on our drafting board is to design an awareness program locally to assist veteran caregivers. Be it a caregiver check call list, or time away from their veteran to just relax. This will require significant funding to provide a break for the caregiver. 

When we began our free food program back in 2017, it was a small table with a small amount of food to give out to a hungry veteran. It was a meal, but not from a royal restaurant. The demand for additional food giveaways led us to a realization that people were hungry. By 2020 we had opened up our free food program to the community, and that year we fed 12,357.

Our Free Food Program has grown since then beyond our beliefs. In 2021 we became established with a food bank and began having set days and locations to distribute food items to communities.

The Free Food Program today is a massive undertaking, with many volunteer hours and volunteer help. Today we serve 35 distribution sites in Polk County and 2 distribution sites in Highlands County. This year we are averaging 1,893 bags of food per month and serving an average of 7,147 people. To help offset the growing demand we have established 3 special distribution Saturdays where anyone can walk up, get a bag to fill, chose the food items they need, and take it home.

Our Free Food Program is a Community Service Program, providing free food to anyone asking. There is no sign up, no documents required. And you can get food each time we distribute near you. We do have a grant for part of the costs, and a corporate sponsor for a part of the costs, the rest is all by donations. The cost of food continues to rise, and that places a hardship on our ability to purchase food. We do by in volume, and place it into our warehouse, and the food is then processed into bags for delivery to predetermined locations at a specific time and day.

We are always willing to have additional volunteer helpers, and of course we never turn down financial support. To provide a 50-bag distribution, once a month, costs us $6,000.00 per year It is our goal to establish 15 additional distribution sites in 2024. You can help make that happen. 

This is a second focus area of concern, assisting the homeless. We understand that becoming homeless in todays society can be the result of many economic and socio-economic factors. There is a complete list of qualifying factors that can class you as homeless. We are here to assist in what ever way we can.

There are those, especially veterans, that feel their country has turned its back on them. They wish to live off the grid, so to speak, in a tent and use the survival skills they were taught as a part of their military service. We are not out to remove them from their tent, but rather to offer them a different way of life. Again, there are those that wish to stay in their tent. For that reason, we have developed a closet of sort, where we can provide personal care products, medical equipment, clothing, furniture, house-hold items, camping equipment, and food.

Since 2017 we have directly assisted 41 veterans, veterans with families, family members of veterans, and local civilians into more secure housing. What we learned along the way is sad. There are homeless children on the streets, they go to school. We work with different schools to provide what we can for them.

You see a male veteran begging on the street, and the normal thought is go get a job. Your thought process changes quickly when it is a female veteran begging on the streets, especially if she has children with her.

America is still the greatest place to live, but we have to understand that the government cannot care for all the woes of society. We are slowly making a difference in the quality of life for those seeking housing and for those wishing to remain on the street. We do this one person at a time. It requires funding to buy that item to give away, and we do receive donations to help our cause. We can also use volunteer help.