Help for Veterans Struggling through Covid-19

When the COVID-19 crisis first began to tighten its grip on Monroe County, Nick Stefanovic’s thoughts turned to the military veterans he serves every day as director of the county’s Veterans Service Agency.

“I started thinking about the fact that if service agencies had to close, we have so many veterans in our community who rely on these other organizations for food and essentials and that it could get more difficult for them to get what they need if things started closing,” said Stefanovic.

He reached out to the veteran community with a plea— please help— and they delivered. Over the past two weeks, local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and individuals have donated well over $3,000 in non-perishable food and supplies and more than $1,500 in grocery gift cards to the effort. So far, Stefanovic has been able to help more than two dozen families with deliveries of groceries and gift cards to cover other necessities. And he hopes to continue helping more, “Any veteran or family member of a vet can contact us and they can either come and get stuff, or we will bring things out to them. We can provide a week to two weeks of supplies and gift cards,” he said. 

With the continuing generosity of Monroe County residents, Stefanovic is sure he’ll be able to keep up with the needs.“You always want to think the community is going to respond like this during a time of crisis, but you don’t know until the crisis happens,” Stefanovic said. “It’s a great thing to see the community respond in the way you would want. It’s just been overwhelming and the calls with donations just keep coming in.”

To request assistance, email Stefanovic at nickstefanovic@monroecounty.gov 
Non-perishable food donations are also being accepted at Veterans Service Agency, 125 Westfall Road.

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