NAHANT — Nahant’s Veterans Services Department makes sure local veterans have food on their table, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roughly a dozen volunteers gathered outside American Legion Post 215 Wednesday morning to hand out fully stocked bags of collard greens, bananas, pasta, beans, eggs, peanut butter, and other fresh, frozen, and nonperishable food items to residents signed up for the Veterans Food Network program.
One of four communities on the North Shore to participate, the veterans services office in Nahant, as well as the VSO in Revere, Winthrop, and Chelsea, receive monthly groceries from the Boston Food Bank meant to ease the financial burden of food shopping for veterans.
“It’s a group of towns working through the veterans service offices in something like a veterans food collaborative,” said Veterans Services Officer Jon Lazar. “We have a pretty unique partnership here … The reason why it’s so successful is because of the collaboration we have within town.”
Hosted locally in conjunction with the American Legion, the town of Nahant, the Nahant Ladies Auxiliary, the Nahant Council on Aging, and the Department of Public works, the program now serves a total of 55 residents in Nahant, and 610 residents throughout the region.
Although it’s been in the works for more than four years now — bags are handed out on the first Wednesday of every month — Lazer said the number of veterans the program serves has increased substantially since the start of the global public health crisis.
“Because people don’t want to go to the supermarket or for whatever reason, since COVID started in March, we’ve gone up about 15, 20 percent,” he said.
Volunteer and American Legion member Bob Fields added: “Some of our older veterans are living on a fixed income, and especially times like this, when they’re unable to leave the house, we’re able to help fill a need. It’s not everything, but it’s a little bit.”
Thankfully, volunteers are able to hand-deliver bags to those unable to pick them up themselves, which fields said has even resulted in some friendships between recipients and volunteers during a time of otherwise heavy isolation.
“My wife is a part of the American Legion Auxiliary,” he said. “She makes phone calls to the same people every month, so they get kind of an extra check-in … It works out really well because they also get to talk to somebody.”
In addition to helping ease financial burdens, Lazar also added that extra food is given to the Nahant Council on Aging.
“If there’s any surplus food, it gets donated to them,” he said. “They in turn use it to prepare meals for the senior citizens of Nahant so it doesn’t go to waste. It’s a good partnership.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].