Story by Whitney Carter. Photos provided by Soldiers' Angels.
As of December 17, there were more than 350 military and veteran families still waiting to be adopted through the Holiday Adopt-A-Family program within Soldiers’ Angels. That number includes more than 1,170 children.
The campaign pairs military and veteran families with businesses, organizations, and individuals who want to help them have a memorable holiday season. Once approved, families are “adopted” by Soldiers’ Angels volunteers, who will provide, at a minimum, one gift for each child and a grocery gift card to put towards a holiday meal. The program is meant to supplement a family’s holiday celebration.
In 2022, 1,758 families, including more than 4,500 children, were supported through the Adopt-A-Family campaign with presents and grocery gift cards. This year, nearly 2,000 families have already been adopted, leaving 353 families in need of support.
According to the organization, Businesses and individuals interested in adopting a family should visit SoldiersAngels.org/Adopt-A-Family. Registrations for families are at capacity and have ended.
While the current push is for the holiday season, the Soldiers’ Angels Military and Veteran Food Distribution is a nationwide initiative that started in September 2015 at the nonprofit’s headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. The program has expanded to Atlanta, Charleston, Denver, Detroit, Orlando, and now Dallas.
“Our global network of volunteers works to ensure that those who serve or have served are supported, uplifted, and remembered through a variety of support programs. Soldiers’ Angels is one of the highest-rated nonprofits in the country, recognized by multiple independent agencies for its financial efficiency and transparency,” President and CEO Amy Palmer says.
Most recently, that help has come from food distribution drives around the holiday season.
“Soldiers’ Angels has provided monthly food assistance to low-income, homeless, and at-risk Veterans since 2015, successfully growing the program to serve those in need in, now, seven cities across the country,” Amy says.
Amy wants to remind the community that veterans are not the only military-connected people in need of food support. The team at Soldiers’ Angels uses the Rand Corporation Report to track metrics and assist where they can.
“Researchers determined that active-duty service members and their families have a higher rate of food insecurity than their civilian counterparts, with 25.8 percent of service members reported as food insecure in 2018, compared to only 9 percent of civilians,” Amy explains. “For this reason, Soldiers’ Angels is grateful to our donors for allowing us now to include active-duty service members, guardsmen, and reservists.”
Amy says that according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, nearly 100,000 military veterans live in Dallas County alone. Recently, they brought that assistance to many North Texas military families.
“And, again, we couldn’t do this without the support of our corporate partners. If any Dallas-area businesses or organizations are interested in giving back to the military-connected members of their community, please reach out. Your funds will go directly to putting food on the tables of our veteran and military families,” Amy says.
Professional golfer and native Dallasite Jordan Spieth and his Jordan Spieth Family Foundation have also contributed to their work in the community.
“The foundation was critical in expanding our monthly military and veteran food
distribution program to Dallas. We are greatly appreciative of their financial support and their efforts to spread the word about our food distribution among their networks,” Amy says.
In addition to the holiday events, the organization hosts a number of events to give support to caregivers. That work includes but is not limited to providing cards for service members and their families and even hosting virtual baby showers, with several ways for the public to get involved.
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