In the summertime, the most exertion many of us are willing to commit involves turning over some hamburgers on the barbecue. But a new brewery with a special mission is making helping veterans as easy as cracking open a bottle of beer.
Navy veteran Paul Jenkins and Marine Corps veteran Mike Danzer founded the Veteran Beer Company in 2012 with the goal of easing the veteran employment crunch by creating a company that would employ veterans and generate profits that could be donated to charities that help veterans. They began selling their two varieties—Blonde Bomber and The Veteran—on Veteran’s Day in 2013, and the company has been expanding ever since.
“We only anticipated to sell about 2,000 cases our first year,” Josh Ray, regional director of Veteran Brewing Company told Nicole Johnson of Valley News Live. “After four months, we did over 30,000 cases, and we’re pretty close to approaching 60,000 cases right now.”
Beer drinkers can now find Veteran Beer Company’s brews for sale in Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ten percent of the profits go to veterans’ charities, and the rest is channeled back into the company. Veteran Beer Company, which brews its beer in Cold Spring, Minnesota, employs only veterans, and plans to hire more vets as it continues to expand.
“Some of the things that veterans are promised aren’t really always followed through on,” Ray said. “With this, it’s really our opportunity to give back.” And anyone planning to buy a six pack to celebrate a lazy summer afternoon can give back too.
MORE: When This Marine Couldn’t Find A Job, He Started A Business To Help Other Returning Vets
Category: Advancing National Service
Helping Homeless Veterans Is on This Cafe’s Menu
When you order a plate of barbecue ribs, yams and collard greens at Veterans Cafe and Grill in Merrillville, Ind., it comes with a side of veterans’ assistance.
That’s right. Every purchase at the cafe supports not just the veteran employees that work there, but homeless vets, too.
Bessie Hitchcock, the co-owner of the restaurant, is also the director of operations for Veterans Life Changing Services, a nonprofit that provides transitional housing to homeless soldiers, in nearby Gary. She told Karen Caffarini of the Post-Tribune, “A portion of the proceeds generated by the restaurant are used to assist homeless veterans.”
Decorated in red, white and blue, the Veterans Cafe and Grill opened its doors in May, serving up items such as Master Sergeant’s Breakfast and Captain’s Breakfast.
The cafe’s co-owner, Marine Corps veteran Brian Cody, can relate to the service members that the restaurant helps. Three years ago, he sought assistance from Veterans Life Changing Services when he was homeless, and his health was deteriorating due to an injury. “I didn’t think I could walk again,” he told Chas Reilly of NWI Times. He began working as a caterer, and eventually hatched the plan with Hitchcock to open a vet-themed restaurant.
In addition to being one of the cooks at the Veterans Cafe, Cody also mentors other veterans in culinary skills so that they can find jobs in his restaurant and other eateries.
Terrell Junigan, an Army Reservist and Indiana University Northwest business student, also works at the cafe. “It’s hard for some veterans to find work here because of the economy and the area we live in,” he told Caffarini. “Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of jobs here, and the ones that are here, it’s kind of who you know to get them.”
But with this restaurant, it’s not who you know — but what you are and the country that you served that can land you a job.
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A Nonprofit That Helps Vets Get Involved in Sustainable Agriculture
They’re heroes on the battlefield. But once they return home, our veterans face joblessness, depression, homelessness, and suicide.
In Washington state, Growing Veterans is trying to fight these grave problems through the simple act of bringing former service members together to farm. Chris Brown, the founder of the nonprofit, told Briana Gerdeman of The Woodinville Weekly that a veteran once told him, “It’s nice to be able to plant something in the ground that will explode into life rather than into destruction.”
Brown is a Marine Corps veteran born and raised in Woodinville, Washington. After finishing his service, he went to college and started volunteering with the Veterans Conservation Corps, a veteran training program that helps restore and protect Washington’s natural resources. During his time with the organization, he saw first hand how rocky veterans’ transition into civilian life can be. Many of those that Brown met were interested in sustainable agriculture, so after he graduated in 2012, Brown launched his nonprofit to help members of the armed forces and grow healthy produce at the same time.
Growing Veterans employs seven soldiers at its main farm and seven more at partner farms, relying on the help of more than a hundred volunteers total. The farm work gives veterans a chance to connect with fellow soldiers and other volunteers who may not have served in the military.
Of the veterans who participate, Brown told Gerdeman, “Some of them are really interested in becoming farmers. Others just want to get outside or get involved in their community.” He said they welcome the chance to be “a part of something bigger than themselves…it’s something we all kind of long for, but veterans especially, because you’ve been with this group for so long. So it can be really huge for them, and therapeutic.”
What happens with the food that Growing Veterans raises? It’s sold to the community through Growing Washington CSA, where people can sign up to purchase food boxes of local, chemical-free produce that comes with the added bonus of helping veterans.
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A Selfless Teen Treats Former Service Members to a Home-cooked Meal on Father’s Day
On Father’s Day this year, Kayla Waller, a high school senior in Shreveport Louisiana, decided to do more than simply celebrate her own father. In what an only be described as a heart-warming act, Waller showed the veterans staying at Woody’s Home for Veterans, a local Volunteers of America-run transitional home, that she considers them honorary fathers by cooking them a meal on the holiday.
“They are fathers because they are protecting us, like a father,” Waller told Craig Sims of KTBS. Waller had participated in community service projects at Woody’s Home before, and this year was inspired to come up with her own. Spending about $250 that she earned from her very first paycheck on food, Waller worked for 10 hours cooking 60 meals, which she served the veterans herself.
Charles Myrick, a veteran who stays at Woody’s Home, told Sasha Jones of KSLA that Waller’s efforts helped him “to see there are still people out there who appreciate veterans.”
Waller thinks it’s essential for young people to help others. “Think of a track race,” she told Sims, “You’re sticking the baton. You’re giving the baton to someone else. My generation is the next generation that’s coming up that’s going to be in charge.”
It sounds like Kayla Waller is doing a great job running her leg of the relay.
MORE: Minnesota Looks to a Historic Structure to Help End Veteran Homelessness
Big Bets: How to Bridge the Gap Between Practitioners and Policy Makers
In 1987, Alan Khazei co-founded City Year, an education-focused national service nonprofit that served as the model for AmeriCorps, the federal community service program that was created seven years later by President Bill Clinton. But in 2003 Khazei found himself fighting for the organization he helped inspire. AmeriCorps funding was cut by 80 percent that year, so Khazei and around 700 AmeriCorps members descended on Washington, D.C., and gave around-the-clock testimony to get the funding back. The campaign helped restore all financing, and it helped AmeriCorps get a $100 million increase the following year. The experience also spawned Khazei’s next big project: Be the Change, a coalition-building nonprofit that is dedicated to promoting national service, working on social problems and empowering veterans. “It’s very ambitious,” Khazei says, “but if you get people together that are working to solve problems, they have the answers. They’re not ideological, they just want to see what works and how to make it happen.”
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Can a Reverse Boot Camp Help Veterans Find Jobs?
When veterans return from serving their country, it can be hard for them to figure out how to switch gears and transition into a new career.
Genesis10, a St. Paul-based technology and business consulting firm, is doing its part to help veterans go “from deployed to employed,” according to a motto on its website. Part of the process involves what they call a “reverse boot camp,” which helps former service members understand how a business mindset differs from the military one. One specific part of the training? Teaching soldiers “corporate speak,” which is different than how they talked in the military.
Katie Garske, a Genesis10 communications and social media manager told Elizabeth Millard of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal — which named the firm one of its Eureka! Award winners for innovative businesses in the Twin Cities — that lots of programs try to help vets find jobs, but “while well-intentioned, many of these efforts fail to make a significant impact on veteran unemployment, because each approach only partially addresses the issues that contribute to the overall problem.”
After finding there was a persistent demand for IT employees, Genesis10 hired Marine Corps veteran and reserve member Nick Swaggert in 2013 to run its veterans program. The company begins by evaluating prospective veteran employees to find out what their aptitudes and interests are. When it determines a vet would be a good fit for the IT or business sectors, Genesis10 welcomes him or her into its reverse boot camp, so they learn what the firm’s clients are looking for in an employee.
On Genesis10’s website, one veteran writes about his five-month frustrating search for a job that ended when he met a recruiter from Genesis10 looking for veterans with experience in GIS (aka Geographical Information Systems), a military specialization.
“Much of the messaging surrounding veteran unemployment has been ‘do it because it’s patriotic,'” Garske told Millard. “But veterans are not pity hires. Our clients are hiring them because it is a smart business decision.”
MORE: Does Military Jargon Prevent Vets from Landing Jobs?
A Retreat for Veterans in Need of Peace and Camaraderie
Getting away from it all really can have a monumental impact on your spirit and mental health. And that’s certainly something that many U.S. veterans need.
So it’s no surprise that Steve Bukowski (who served as a Navy SEAL for 34 years) had a dream of opening a retreat center for veterans in need of help transitioning back to civilian life. Sadly, Steve died in 2010 without fulfilling his goal, but now, his wife Lynnette is working to make it a reality.
“Over the years he [Steve] realized, after 9/11 and after we went to the war, that the need was greater to bring the men home and have them have a place to decompress,” Bukowski told Catarina Andreano of ABC News. “The pressure under which they work is so extreme.”
Lynnette aims to open Landing Zone Grace Veterans Retreat in her home town of Virginia Beach, Virginia, within the next six months. She’s poured her own money into the nonprofit and started a GoFundMe account that has so far raised more than $15,000 toward her $75,000 goal. Bukowski notes on the website that she needs to raise that much within two weeks to be able to close on a 35-acre property and house for the retreat.
Bukowski plans to offer equine therapy, yoga, kennels for service animals, kayaking, and other treatments and activities. The nonprofit will first welcome returning Special Ops veterans before expanding to include members of all military branches and their spouses.
Why give Special Ops veterans first dibs? Lynnette wants to give them priority because their security clearance restricts how much they can talk about their experiences. She hopes at shared mealtimes they’ll feel free to open up with each other. “A huge problem among Special Ops is the high divorce rate, and it’s just not necessary,” she said.
Bukowski said that this type of retreat would have been tremendously helpful for her husband. “Steve practiced mediation when he came home from missions and deployment…He always needed a little time to isolate himself.”
Bukowski continues her fundraising campaign for Landing Zone Grace through June 20. Even a small donation could make a big difference to returning veterans.
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Splish Splash: This Aquatics Program Eases Veterans’ Transition Home
Fifty years ago, Dr. Jane Katz was a pioneering member of the U.S. synchronized swimming performance team in the 1964 Olympics, helping to promote the aquatic competition involving nose clips, coordinated moves, and big smiles that eventually became an official Olympic sport in Los Angeles in 1984.
Now Dr. Katz is using her years of experience in the water to rehabilitate veterans.
Katz, who teaches at John Jay College in New York City, developed her own swimming rehabilitation program after she suffered injuries in a 1979 car accident, eventually publishing many books and videos that teach her methods to others. For years, she also has been teaching swimming to NYC policemen and firefighters through her college’s Department of Physical Education and Athletics. And most recently, she decided to expand her WET (water exercise technique) classes to specifically appeal to veterans.
“I have found that many of the vets, regardless of age, have joint pain and as a result they stopped working out…Water is always great for healing,” she told Swimming World. Which is why in WETs for Vets, Dr. Katz engages veterans in exercises designed to help their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
“I don’t think the public has enough of an appreciation for what these vets go through when they return to civilian life,” she said. “It’s a very difficult adjustment, mostly from a psychological standpoint as many suffer from various degrees of post traumatic stress. The WETs for Vets program helps them in several ways. The workouts help relieve stress, and there’s a real camaraderie among the students because they share a common bond that those of us who have not been in combat cannot really understand. ”
Marine Corps veteran Marc MacNaughton told Swimming World that Dr. Katz’s class has been invaluable to him. “As I and others can attest getting in the pool makes coming home from war easier for our military service members, veterans, and their families…The unique program that Dr. Katz has designed has given us increased confidence, family and social connections, and to some, learning how to live with a new physical adaption. It has improved mental health for some of our veterans, and a few have shared with me even recovery from addiction. ”
FINA, the international governing body for swimming and aquatic events, recently presented Dr. Katz with a certificate of merit, which the deserving recipient can add to her many other rewards.
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Who Does This Food Truck Want to Help Out? U.S. Vets
As it turns out, a little BBQ can cure more than just an empty stomach.
That’s exactly what wounded veteran Shane Farlin found out when trying to get back on his feet after leaving the Army. And now, he’s hoping to do the same for other soldiers with a food truck named Hogzilla.
Farlin had always wanted to be a soldier. Enlisting in the Army at the age of 17, he was later deployed to Iraq. In 2004, when returning from a supply mission in Fallujah, a bomb exploded in his face. A helicopter airlifted Farlin to treatment, saving his life, but the accident cost him one of his eyes. The injury also resulted in PTSD, and Farlin was discharged from the Army, leaving him with the need to find a new career.
He floundered for a while, spending four years interviewing for various jobs. To say that he was dispirited was an understatement — he was so low that once, he called the military suicide line.
Finally, Sonny Singh, the owner of a Michigan barbecue restaurant, Hogzilla, offered Farlin a job. The position made all the difference — lifting Farlin’s spirits and making him feel like a useful person again.
Now Farlin wants to provide jobs to other vets struggling to find work by opening up a food truck called Hogzilla Squeals on Wheels, with the hope of eventually expanding to an entire fleet of veteran-staffed food trucks (serving various types of cuisine). “I know vets make good employees,” Farlin told Kathy Jennings of Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave.
While food trucks are swarming cities from coast to coast, the trend hasn’t caught on yet in southwest Michigan’s Calhoun County, where Farlin’s vehicle would be the first full-service food truck in operation. Farlin is currently trying to raise the $50,000 he needs to get Hogzilla on the road through a Kickstarter page. So far he’s raised about $4,500.
Until Farlin’s food truck dreams are realized, he’ll continue to work in a vending trailer owned by the restaurant, forging agreements with private property owners to set up his trailer, as Battle Creek, Michigan does not yet allow food trucks on public property.
With any luck, Farlin will soon be serving up deep-fried macaroni and barbecue sandwiches and employing his fellow veterans.
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3 Organizations That Assist Veterans Build and Grow Their Startups
It goes without saying that being a member of the armed forces provides you with valuable experience and skills. And as it turns out, it gives you a bit of the entrepreneurial bug, too.
The men and women returning to the U.S. from military service are 45 percent more likely to start a business than those with no military service, according to a Small Business Administration report.
Here, three of the best organizations, according to Task & Purpose, that have mobilized in recent years to assist veterans in the transition from active service to civilians with promising entrepreneurial endeavors.
Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV)
Post-9/11 veterans who have sustained service-connected disabilities can apply to this program to enroll in a hybrid online/in-person entrepreneurship bootcamp — for free. Participants first complete a self-study curriculum online, and from there, they move to a nine-day residency at one of the eight universities that host the EBV program. After the residency, enrolled veterans continue to receive mentorship and advice from EBV’s network of experts.
EBV got its start at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in 2007, and after a successful first year, seven more schools signed on to host the program on their campuses. Over the life of the program, EBV has seen more than 700 matriculating veterans, whose new business ventures have collectively created 670 new jobs, according to the EBV website.
Techstars Patriot Boot Camp (PBC)
The Patriot Boot Camp is an offshoot of Techstars, a tech-startup accelerator with locations in six U.S. cities and London. Active military, veterans, and their spouses are the groups PBC was designed for.
PBC’s annual three-day workshop calls upon experts from the Techstars network to offer education and mentoring to would-be entrepreneurs at no cost, and on the final day, the program allows attendees to practice their business pitches. PBC received much of its funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
VetCap from VetsInTech
VetCap (short for “capital for veterans”) seeks to provide its members with just that: Connections to investors with the capital necessary to nurture fledgling businesses. The first VetCap event was held this May in San Francisco, with over 70 vets in attendance, according to the program’s website.
The nonprofit’s plan going forward is to roll out workshops across the U.S., not all of which will focus on tech, reports a Forbes article on the new project.
If you or someone you know is a veteran or an active service member with entrepreneurial ambitions, take note. These organizations are devoted to seeing those dreams realized.