Upcoming Projects
Help Us Create Our New “Home” for Cook For Vets
The Goal:
Let’s Get Cooking! $5,000 will help us reach our goal towards having a fully operating commercial kitchen.
Our kitchen requires the essential equipment, cookware and bakeware for preparing and cooking meals for delivery to Veterans and their families. Essentials include, but are not limited to, pots, pans, cutlery, delivery boxes, and safety equipment.
Another objective of Cook For Vets is to create a Food Pantry to provide groceries as a much-needed supplement to the meal delivery. A well-stocked food pantry will provide greater accessibility for Veterans to have a resource to turn to when food supply is limited.
Overall, health and well-being necessitates balanced and sustained nutrition and Cook For Vets strives to provide just that through our Food Pantry and meal delivery.
Extended Goal:
$7,500 will enable us to provide all our volunteers with Cook For Vets uniforms.
Wearing uniforms is especially important as we go out to our community and make meal deliveries to each of the Veterans referred to us. Wearing uniforms builds spirit and community as volunteers working together. In addition to the uniforms, each volunteer is required to obtain a Food Handler’s Certification (valid for 3 years). The 2-4 hour online training is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to meet State of Virginia Safety Guidelines. This certification provides basic training for following food safety protocols in any establishment cooking or serving food.
Extended Goal:
$15,000 will ALSO allow us to purchase a new refrigerator and freezer!
Every good commercial kitchen benefits from having energy-efficient appliances. With new refrigeration comes more storage capacity, optimal organization, and less food waste to maximize our productivity as the numbers we serve increase. A new freezer will enable us to keep fresh and frozen foods longer, pre-cook and freeze larger quantities of foods, and purchase bulk and freezer food items.
Why it Matters
With a fully operational kitchen and state-of-the-art appliances our volunteers will feel very enthusiastic and eager to step up their efforts in supporting this worthwhile cause.
As Cook For Vets gets underway it necessitates coming together as a community to begin making a difference in the lives of local Veterans. With your support we can raise much-needed funds to purchase high-quality food items to make nutritious and wholesome meals for weekly distribution. Sadly, the amount of Veterans lacking sustained nutrition is ever-increasing, but we are hopeful that our nonprofit will have an impact on decreasing these numbers.
Our ultimate goal is for Cook For Vets to become a stronghold to battle against food insecurities within the underserved community.
How to get involved:
Cook For Vets strives to elicit positive impact on the Veteran community at large with humility, respect, and admiration. It serves Veterans from all branches of the military and all walks of life, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. We seek volunteers willing to give a few hours on a Saturday afternoon to assist with preparation, cooking, and packing up meals for delivery to our service members. Consider becoming an advocate for Veterans by getting involved with Cook For Vets!