How to Support Veterans During the Holidays in 2024

The holiday season poses unique needs for many military service members and veterans. 

Some ways of showing your support are as simple as sending a card to a deployed soldier, inviting a veteran over for a holiday meal, or shopping at a veteran-owned business.

Some needs are greater than others. The exact number of homeless veterans is unknown, but in 2023 the VA’s goal was to permanently place at least 41,000 homeless vets. Nearly one fifth of veterans face food insecurity. One group estimates that in recent years, up to 1.4 million veterans nationwide are food insecure, but less likely to seek help.

In this article, you’ll find a list of opportunities for you to donate, volunteer, and support veterans during the holidays. 

How to donate safely

Before you donate, we offer a word of caution: always stay skeptical when considering a donation to any organization. Scammers often exploit our appreciation for people who serve in the military and collect “donations” that are never sent to service members or veterans. The AARP offers some good advice about how to recognize veteran charity scams. 

If you are unfamiliar with a charity organization, you can use Charity Navigator, check the IRS tax-exempt status, or look it up on Better Business Bureau’s Give.org. We have used these tools in our research for this article, but we suggest you do your own investigating, too.

Now for the best part: giving!

Stuff a stocking

Holiday Stockings for Heroes is a donation drive created by Soldiers’ Angels. Anyone can participate. All you have to do is collect items from the list of suggested items, put them into a holiday stocking, and send it a designated address you will receive after registering on their site. You can also include a personal card or letter with your festive gift. 

To participate, you must send in your pledged stocking to the address provided to you by Dec. 7, 2024. This year, the organization has a goal of collecting 40,000 stockings.

Adopt a veteran or veteran’s family

Soldiers’ Angels also has an adopt a veteran or veteran’s family program. Military and veteran families can register for support through Dec. 1, 2024, unless the program reaches capacity earlier. 

Volunteers, businesses, and organizations can also register to adopt a family. After completing registration, you can select a family or families to adopt and view their wishlists. Then the shopping for gifts begins – just be sure to mail them in time for Christmas!

Individuals and groups who adopt a family will need to send gifts by Dec. 7, 2024 for overseas families, or Dec. 15, 2024 for stateside families.

Donate to a veterans charity

Many charities advocate for veterans. Some well-known veteran charities include: 

• Semper Fi & America’s Fund
• Honor Flight Network
• Blue Star Families
• Folds of Honor
• Operation Second Chance
• Freedom Service Dogs of America
• Spirit of America
• Wounded Warrior Project
• Gary Sinise Foundation

The list of charities goes on, but the organizations listed above (including Soldiers’ Angels mentioned previously in this article) are among those with a four-star “give with confidence” rating on the Charity Navigator index. 

Send a card or letter

The simple act of mailing a heartfelt card or a handmade letter to a veteran or military service member is appreciated more than you know. Veterans and military service members always welcome cards and letters, but receiving them during the holidays is extra special.

You can participate in the Military Card Challenge, which has delivered more than half a million holiday cards. The Jewish Soldiers Project also operates a program to get Hanukkah cards to Jewish U.S. service members. In past years, the group has asked interested individuals to email [email protected] for details. Keep in mind, this year Hanukkah takes place between Dec. 25, 2024 and Jan. 2, 2025.

Click the links above to make a difference in a veteran’s holiday season by sending a card.

2024 Mailing deadlines to send cards

You’ll want to make sure your Christmas card reaches a veteran or military member in time. The military mailing deadlines for USPS are as follows:

• Dec. 9, 2024 for First Class Mail and Priority Mail Service
• Dec. 16, 2024 for Priority Mail Express Military Service
• Nov. 4, 2024 for USPS Ground Advantage Service 

Give a gift

Operation Christmas Spirit is an annual project started in the early 2000s that supports military families and service members through morale-boosting events during the holiday season. There are multiple ways to participate in the Operation Christmas Spirit Program. You can:

• Host an Angel Tree. 
• Collect gift cards. Participants should sign up by Dec. 5, 2024.
• Host a toy drive. 
• Give gifts for single service members. 
• “Adopt” a family by Nov. 20, 2024. 

Deadlines for collecting and purchasing these items can be found at the links above. People wishing to support the program in another way can also donate online.

The Christmas Spirit Foundation’s annual Trees for Troops provides free, farm-grown Christmas trees to U.S. service members in all branches of the military. The program relies on donations, sponsorships, grants, and the work of many volunteers. While this year’s recipients have already been selected, there’s still time to donate a tree or money to Trees for Troops. 

Support food drives

Several programs around the country are working to provide food for veterans and military service members, particularly those that are food insecure.

Feeding America partnership with the VA

Feeding America began a partnership with the VA in 2017 called the Veterans Pantry Pilot (VPP) program. Local food banks partner with VA Medical Centers to either establish pantries onsite or to coordinate mobile pantry distributions.

Some current active VPP partnerships include:

• Beckley, West Virginia: Mountaineer Food Bank and Beckley VA Medical Center
• Cincinnati, Ohio: Freestore Food Bank and Cincinnati VA Medical Center
• Dublin, Georgia: Middle Georgia Community Food Bank and Carl Vinson VA Medical Center
• Spokane, Washington: Second Harvest Inland Northwest and Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center
• Temple, Texas: Central Texas Food Bank and Austin VA Clinic

You can check with your local VA facility to see if they participate in the program.

Kosher Troops Virtual Food Drive

Kosher Troops has shipped tens of thousands of packages of kosher food and holiday gift baskets to service members stationed around the world since 2008. You can donate $15 to send donuts or Hanukkah gelt or donuts through the Virtual Food Drive. The group also organizes food drives for Shavuot, Purim, Passover, and the High Holidays.

Volunteer to feed veterans

In addition to the Soldiers’ Angels activities previously mentioned, the group also offers a monthly food distribution called Volunteer to Feed Veterans. It helps thousands of low-income, at-risk, and homeless veterans in these six cities in the U.S.:

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Dallas, Texas
• Denver, Colorado
• Orlando, Florida
• San Antonio, Texas

If you live in or near one of these cities, you can register to volunteer for a hands-on opportunity to impact veterans.

Volunteer with a veterans organization

The American Red Cross volunteers to help in military and veteran health care facilities across the nation and around the world. They continue to support military families during and after service. You can sign up to be a Red Cross volunteer and join the network of more than 14,000 volunteers to give support and critical services to veterans and active service members.

You can also join the VA’s Volunteer Transportation Network (VTN), which provides transportation for veterans seeking services from a VA facility or authorized facility. To be a VTN volunteer, you just need to complete and submit the form on the VA’s volunteer page. 

Support veteran-owned businesses

The holiday season is a great time to support small, veteran-owned businesses. Many are still struggling from damage done during the COVID-19 pandemic and need our support more than ever to stay in business. 

The Ultimate Veteran-Owned Business 2024 Gift Guide is a great place to start. The article suggests online shops that sell clothing, coffee, items for the home, toys, and more.

Donate to a VA facility

Donations made directly to the VA are used to help inpatient, outpatient, and homeless veterans and their caregivers who are treated in VA facilities. Donors can support the general fund, which allows facilities to use donations wherever the greatest need is, or can donate to a specific program such as transportation services, residential care units, and special events.

Donations are accepted online and in-person. Just provide your name, address, and donation amount. Identify which program (general or specific) you want to contribute to and if you are donating in honor or memory of someone.  

Reach out to veterans in your life

Chances are you know a veteran. Whether it’s a family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor, telling them you care about them can uplift their spirits more than you think. You can send a card, meet them for coffee, or invite them to your holiday gatherings. How you decide to reach out isn’t as important as the decision to do so.

Happy Holidays from Woods and Woods

If you don’t personally know a veteran but want to help, we hope we’ve given you some guidance on how to express your gratitude or send a little holiday cheer to those who serve and have served. 

There are many more veteran-owned businesses and veterans charities than we can cover in a single article. If you come across businesses or charities that benefit veterans that are not on our list, do your research to make sure you are donating your money wisely. We hope our list will help you find a way to support veterans during this holiday season.

Everyone at Woods and Woods wishes all of you a happy, healthy, and warm holiday season!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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