NAHANT — A small group of local volunteers is on a mission to feed veterans.
The Veterans Mobile Food Market, which is held from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the Life Saving Station on the first Wednesday of every month, has been growing since it began around seven years ago.
The organization, which is open to all veterans and their families, operates primarily off of donations from the Greater Boston Food Bank to provide items like eggs, chicken, fruits, and vegetables to as many as 40 veterans every month.
“There’s a stigma associated with food banks. We try to work on that,” Dana Sheehan, one of the program’s lead volunteers, said.
Sheehan, an Air Force veteran from Nahant, has been volunteering with the program for a couple of years. He emphasized that it is all about accessibility to fresh food, especially for older veterans with fixed incomes. However, he stressed there is no income or age requirement for veterans to take advantage of the program.
In addition to deliveries to a few Nahant veterans, the program donates excess food to the Council on Aging, which also serves some veterans.
Sheehan said he hopes more young veterans take advantage of the program in the future, as well as volunteer to help it expand.
“If we had the volunteers… this would be a more sustainable program to get veterans the food they need,” Sheehan said.
The program receives assistance transporting food from Department of Public Works member Keith Olbash. It is also organized by volunteers Wayne Noonan, an Army veteran from Nahant, and Peter Barba, who said that although he is not a veteran, he feels a duty to support local veterans.
“This is just my way to give back,” Barba said.
