(NewsNation) — Soldiers’ Angels is on a mission. Regardless of who they are, the people who run the non-profit aim to provide deployed service members, veterans, and their families with much-needed aid, comfort, and resources.
Located in San Antonio, Texas, Soldiers’ Angels has been serving the military community since it was founded by Patti Patton-Bader in 2003, after her oldest son, Staff Sergeant Brandon Varn, was deployed in Iraq. According to the Soldiers’ Angels website, her son had remarked on a lack of care packages for his fellow comrades, so Patton-Bader gathered some friends and neighbors to send packages to his whole platoon.
Since then, the effort continues to grow. The non-profit is the largest food provider exclusively to veterans in the United States and the largest donor to VA healthcare systems in the entire country. According to a fact sheet released in 2022, that year, Soldiers’ Angels provided support to 877,224 service members, veterans, and family members. In the last 20 years, the organization has sent over a million care packages to deployed service members and since 2003, has provided over $263 million in aid to military and veteran families.
Amy Palmer, U.S. Air Force veteran and President and CEO of Soldiers’ Angels, says one of the largest areas they help with is when service members return home and transition back to civilian life.
“Veterans returning and veterans transitioning to civilian life is hard,” Palmer said on “Morning in America.” “We provide transportation services for veterans to appointments that are critical appointments like chemo and dialysis. We provide food for veterans in the V.A.s who can’t afford to eat in the V.A. cafeteria, provide box lunches for homeless veterans – those are the big ones.”
This year, Soldier’ Angels celebrates its 20th anniversary. To help them reach their goal of collecting 20 thousand pounds of care package items, visit soldiersangels.org.