How to help veterans all year long
(CNN) — If you really want to help those who served their country on Veterans Day, commit to caring for them all year round. That’s the guidance from celebrity chef Robert Irvine who runs his own foundation for service members. Irvine is a veteran of the British Royal Navy and hosts his own show on Food Network. (Food Network and CNN are both divisions of Warner Bros. Discovery.) He suggests several ways to assist veterans throughout the year.
Make connections through volunteering
Many military members and veterans rely on food banks, since as many as one in four active duty men and women are food insecure. About one in five military and veteran families struggle with food insecurity.
Irvine says volunteering in a food bank – and making the time while you’re there to sit down and actually talk to a veteran – is a great way to thank people for their service.
“When you put a meal in front of somebody, it drops the barriers down,” he says.
Other places where you can have one-on-one conservations with vets include churches and VA hospitals.
Irvine says you could volunteer at the USO or even just sit in the lobby of a VA hospital and offer to talk to anyone who might be lonely. You could even just google “veteran groups in my area” and offer to volunteer with them.
Check in on vets year round
One-on-one conversations are among the best gifts you can give someone who served.
“It’s human nature to ask questions. Even if you’re not so good at it, most people will happily talk to you,” Irvine says.
“I think that’s what we crave the most. Just conversation. Putting down the phones. When you make friends, you have someone to share [your] feelings with.”
The celebrity chef says after years of working with veterans, his biggest message is to get them out of their own space, “which in turn gets them out of their own heads.”
Irvine often posts on social media, or reaches out to vets he knows, just to say “Hey, how are you doing?”
When he can meet them in person, Irvine likes to get vets into the gym, feed them, or even teach them how to cook. Food is a common theme.
“Florida just had two hurricanes. If you can cook a meal and deliver it,” that can be so helpful he says.
“If it’s a homeless veteran, buy him a jacket, socks, shoes,” he says.
Hire vets to give them a hands up
Employers can help veterans by hiring them, and if possible, even adding them to their boards of directors. “The way we’re trained in the military is to problem-solve,” points out Irvine.
Veterans’ leadership skills make them useful to almost every business, he says.
“I can tell you that I have veterans in my company. Why wouldn’t I have somebody like that advising me? It’s a no-brainer.”
You may have to seek them out, Irvine warns, since they typically don’t want to ask for help. “Veterans don’t want a hand out. They want a hand up,” he says.
“We don’t join the military to make money. We do it because it’s patriotic.”
Everyone seems to remember vets on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, he says, but “what about the other days of the year?”
“Don’t care for a minute, care forever. Check on them,” says Irvine. “It starts with a meal, a hot cup of coffee and an ear.”