The shelves of the food pantry at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Martinsburg have been needing a restock for quite some time.
That situation may soon be rectified thanks to the efforts of Operation Full Plate.
On Thursday afternoon, Operation Full Plate could be found taking place at the Martinsburg Panera Bread, encouraging local residents to donate nonperishable food and hygiene items to the food pantry.
“The VA is desperate for food donations,” said Susan Pipes, one of the initiative’s organizers.
Pipes, who is one of the co-founders of Eastern Panhandle Indivisible, said she and the other members of Eastern Panhandle Indivisible leapt at the opportunity to help resupply the food pantry when it was suggested to them by Berkeley County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Tammy Offutt and Tuscarora District Representative Sandy Lynch.
“I’m a veteran, and Tammy’s a veteran, and we have seen how Trump’s cutbacks on benefits since the beginning of his term 18 months ago have made life difficult for our fellow veterans. Even though we are not in need ourselves, we feel strongly that we must do what we can to help those who are experiencing food insecurity in our area,” Lynch, who served for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, said.
She noted that many of the veterans experiencing food insecurity are those who lost some or all of their disability compensation when President Donald Trump introduced major cutbacks after he came into office for his second term. Being disabled, many of them are unable to hold full-time employment and are struggling to survive.
“The veterans who visit the food pantry are primarily homeless or unhoused,” Lynch said, mentioning that includes those who are temporary or permanent residents of the VA. “Even veterans who are living at the hospital campus will come to the pantry in search of certain kinds of products like Band-Aids or soap. I was told that the patients in the hospital do not like the soap the hospital has to buy because of a contract, as it is too harsh to use on their skin.”
The two organizations were joined by a third, Eastern Panhandle Policies Over Parties (EPPOP), which worked with them to bring attention to this new initiative.
For EPPOP Vice President Sarah Tolley, supporting veterans in this way was important to her, both out of concern for her fellow community members and out of her own appreciation for the sacrifice that many veterans have made in their service to their country. Tolley’s mother served in the U.S. Army, and her father served in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy. Both of them left their years in the service significantly disabled by their military experiences; her mother received a 100% disability rating after retirement.
“My parents are lucky that they were not among those to lose their disability compensation, but that was not the case for everyone,” Tolley said. “It is heartbreaking to know the difficulty that many of them are going through. I’m glad EPPOP was able to join this initiative – it is so important to us to help those in need in our community in any way that we can.”
A second Operation Full Plate donation collection event will be held at the Ranson Panera Bread from 3-5 p.m. on March 25.
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