New Little Falls Program Puts Food On Veterans Tables

LITTLE FALLS (WJON News) -- Veterans Day is over, but one Central Minnesota town is looking to help veterans in need for months to come. Little Falls has launched the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Operation Full Plate.

Veterans In Morrison County Find Help With Groceries

The program is a food distribution initiative to help vets facing food insecurity. Starting on Thursday, Morrison County Veterans can pick up a free box full of food on the third Thursday of each month.  Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce President Purva Watten says Operation Full Plate came together quickly:

"The Morrison County Veterans Service Office and the Little Falls Area Chamber and Tourism we were having a discussion. We were actually getting a lot of phone calls from Veterans specifically asking if there's any food assistance program in Morrison County, so that told us that there's definitely a big need for a food assistance program dedicated to Veterans."

Each box contains things like pasta, pasta sauce, and canned vegetables. The number of boxes available to people is based on family size.

Little Falls Answers The Call From Veterans Needing Food

The program is open to all veterans and their immediate family members who need food assistance.  Watten says they were able to start the program thanks to federal grant money:

"We were very lucky to be able to get Little Falls added to that program, so now we have enough funding to be able to provide these twenty-pound food boxes, so one box is going to be around twenty pounds."

Veterans can pick up the food boxes at Scout MN in Little Falls from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Operation Full Plate is a partnership between Minnesota State Disabled Veterans (DAV), the Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, Sprout, MN, and the Morrison County Veterans Service Office.