Submitted by the Ozark (Ark.) Regional Chapter

The Ozark Regional (Ark.) Chapter continued its goal in 2025 of more hands-on community involvement to support to local veterans.

Over the past year-plus, members of the chapter volunteered at the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank in Lowell, Ark., “giving their time and energy Saturday mornings to bag dry goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and make produce bags and cardboard boxes for future food orders,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Shaffer, USAF (Ret), chapter communications and program director.

The food bank, with its new 85,000-square-foot warehouse, can store and distribute 18 million pounds of purchased and donated food to more than 110 agency partners, including the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks (VHSO) in Fayetteville, Ark. Each year, the food bank provides the VHSO with 200 to 400 food boxes a month; each box contains enough shelf-stable food to support a veteran and his or her family of four for five days.

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In support of the VHSO’s 2025 holiday food box drive-thru event, chapter members bagged apples, oranges, and sweet potatoes, which were included in food boxes given to northwest Arkansas veterans with food insecurity.

“I and the rest of the leadership are very appreciative of the chapter’s consistent commitment to the food bank’s mission and coming alongside the VHSO to provide vital assistance to veterans experiencing food insecurity,” Jeff Thacker, development and community engagement director for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, said at the chapter’s November general membership meeting.