Memphis-Area Veterans Receive Gift Cards Ahead of Thanksgiving: ‘It’s a Blessing’

Kroger grocery stores and Alpha Omega Veterans Services partnered to provide gift cards to Memphis-area veterans ahead of Thanksgiving for the fifth straight year.

The event was held on Thursday at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, according to ABC 24. Veterans drove up and collected their 40 gift cards and a bag of food for their families.

Veteran Keith Allen spoke to the impact the event has on Memphis-area veterans.

“Very important, you know. Funds are kind of low, you know, this time of month anyway, you know. I’m going to enjoy every bit of this,” Allen told ABC 24. 

Veteran Don Mooney emphasized how vital events such as Thursday’s can be for America’s heroes.

“If they didn’t have these things, there could be some depression could set in, stuff like this,” Mooney told the outlet. “So, this helps elevate a little bit of that and makes those guys enjoy their families a little more and make them more available.”

Veteran Tasia Tolliver called the event a “blessing.”

“A straight blessing. It’s a blessing,” Tolliver said.

Alpha Omega Veterans Services is a nonprofit organization that is “headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee that assists military veterans to reintegrate into society, often after achieving recovery and rehabilitation from debilitating mental and physical conditions,” according to its website.

The organization assists veterans by providing them with the “social services needed to totally reintegrate them back into society,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

The provides services including “food, shelter, clothing, referrals for training in vocational, educational and job placement goals, community service referrals, individual and group counseling and other such services.”