Close to 1,300 military families and veterans receive free food

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Volunteers braved a cold, windy and snowy Monday as two organizations, Fort Care and TW Family Affair Outreach, teamed up to honor and give military families and veterans free boxes of food in a drive-thru event called the Honor Package Grocery Giveaway.

Hundreds of vehicles lined the parking lot of First Assembly of God Church as 2,800 Honor Boxes of Food benefitting close to 1,300 military families and veterans were handed out after being unloaded from two semi-trucks. This was the fourth such free food event in the area.

One military family member receiving a box was Katie Conley. “It’s been rough during all this COVID and it’s a great blessing.  It makes us feel like we are appreciated and loved,” said Conley.

Ron Fahy, co-founder of Fort Care, along with his wife Misty, said the boxes of food contained grocery items such as potatoes, apples, chicken, cheese and milk.

Fort Care in their partnership with TW Family Affair Outreach have plans for more Honor Package Giveaways through December. Fahy said every Tuesday until the end of the year, they will have a semi-truck loaded with free food for soldiers, military families and veterans.

TW (Thompson Williams) Family Affair Outreach is headquartered in Nashville. Alicia Williams with the organization said they recently began volunteering with Fort Care and it bothered her when they would have to turn away members of the military who serve. So they worked with other groups to help provide the truck loads of food for military families and veterans.

Fahy said along with close to 25 volunteers who handed out the food , he wanted to thank officers with the Clarksville Police Department for helping direct traffic at the event and United Rentals for donating equipment to help unload and handle the food for the distribution.

All of the drive-thru food giveaways starting Tuesday, Dec. 8 are scheduled to take place at First Assembly of God Church, 1186 Fort Campbell Blvd. Visit the Fort Care and TW Family Affair Outreach Facebook pages for times, details and updates.