Trustco Bank and the Veterans & Community Housing Coalition work to fight veteran hunger

GLENVILLE — The Veterans & Community Housing Coalition (VCHC) and Trustco Bank kicked off their Holiday Food Drive for local veterans earlier this week. 

The month-long food drive will help to feed local veterans this holiday season. Pantry food items will be accepted at Trustco Bank branches through Thursday. Nov. 10, the day before Veterans Day.

“This food drive is going to help us provide much needed food and housing supplies to veterans in seven counties,” Michelle Viola Straight, Interim Executive Director at VCHC said. “So, for us, this is an absolutely tremendous effort.”

According to VCHC, the U.S. has 50,000 homeless veterans on any given night with nearly 600 homeless veterans locally.

Donations can be dropped off at any of Trustco Bank’s Capital Region locations. Some of the items veterans and their families need include:

• nonperishable food items such as canned goods or pop top meals,
• personal hygiene items such as razors and toothbrushes, and
• household items such as laundry detergent and paper towels

“We put together a food pantry right before COVID, and thank goodness, because then when COVID hit, things completely spiraled,” said Viola Straight. “We went from supporting maybe 40-to-50 veterans to supporting about 450 veterans. And then it has continued to grow over the past two years.”

Veterans budgets are not increasing as the food prices continue to increase, Viola Straight said. She explained food bills are close to doubling from what they were only a few years ago. She called food prices “out of control.”

The need for more assistance has been growing in the Capital Region in recent years, Viola Straight explained. A lot of that need comes from younger veterans families, she explained. The average age of veterans who need assistance has increased to between 35 and 50.

“Over the past few years the need has increased greatly,” Viola Straight said. “The issue that we find is we need help doing the outreach. When we bring Veterans our support, a lot of times they turn around and go ‘oh no, give it to someone else who needs it,’ they’re very proud, always looking to help out a brother or a sister.” 

The food and supplies donated at Trustco Bank will help to fill the Veterans Food Pantry and help the organization with food and supplies through the holiday season, Viola Straight said.

“Last year, we provided holidays for 80 veteran families that needed everything, we provided everything from the turkey gravy up to the turkey itself,” Viola Straight said. “This year, our goal, we’re looking to probably increase to about 100 to 150 families that we’re going to have to provide those meals for this year. I don’t see that being an issue at all.”

This year is the first time Trustco Bank has participated in this drive, Vice President of Marketing Adam Roselan said. In the days since the branches began collecting food and items, the response from the community has been great, he said.

“We’ve seen a few branches actually had to empty the boxes, you know, do a pick up at some of the branches because the boxes were full,” Roselan said. “So there’s been a great response so far from the public.”

VCHC and Trustco Bank hope to help about 1,200 individuals with the donations collected from the drive.

“This supply drive allows us to directly support Veterans in their time of need,” Chairman, President, & CEO of Trustco Bank, Robert J. McCormick, said in a statement. “We’re grateful for the work that VCHC does day in and day out for these heroes, and Trustco is honored to work alongside them on this event.”

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