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Wisconsin Post 10’s ‘Safe at Home’ program has delivered more than 8,500 meals since 2020, and also allows the post to make Buddy Checks on area veterans and their families.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, American Legion Montgomery-Plant-Dudley Post 10 in Wausau, Wis., began delivering meals to veterans who were at-risk and couldn’t take a chance being exposed to the virus. By late June of that year, the post had provided more than 1,000 meals in 11 weeks for area veterans in need of food during the pandemic.

But as restrictions were later lifted and a vaccine was developed, Post 10 realized there remained a need for its “Safe at Home” program. The result has been more than 8,500 meals through the program – a number Past Post 10 Commander Bob Weller never thought possible. But then the post realized it was more than a nutritional program.

“Oh heaven’s no. We never dreamed that this would continue,” said Weller, who now serves as the post’s liaison officer. “It was originally done because of shut-ins and keeping people from having be exposed to a disease. But it turned into more of a need, and an opportunity for contact. At the same time that we deliver, we look for needs as well: Whether the garage door doesn’t work, or the steps going into the house are defective. Or the chair lift that veteran is in doesn’t work anymore.

“We’ve delivered new chairs. We’ve delivered new garage doors. We’ve fixed steps. We’ve found out there is a side benefit to the meal program. We look at it as … we’re not just delivering meals. We’re looking after people as well. It’s a Buddy Check as well.”

The meals are provided monthly starting at Thanksgiving and continuing through April, with 250 being delivered each month. “We run it through the winter months when it’s more difficult to get out,” said Weller.

The program originally started with delivery just to veterans and their families, but as some of those veterans have passed, delivery continues to their widows.

To prepare the meals, the post uses the kitchen at Tribute Golf Course – which Post 10 built and opened in 1929 before selling it in 2000. The golf course still serves as the post home.

Twenty-five drivers volunteer every month to deliver the meals. Around 80 percent of those are not Legion Family members.

“The community really got behind this. And it’s known quite wide throughout the area as being a force for the community,” Weller said. “Keeping this in front of the community has continued the interest in the program. We have a tremendous public relations man by the name of Mike Heilman. Mike has done at least 20 stories in our (department publication) about what we do here. We keep the Legion in front of the community, so there’s continued support rolling in all the time.”

Even with community support, Post 10 still allocated more than $19,000 to the program during the previous fiscal year. But it’s worth it.  

“Every time we deliver meals, we hear how grateful they are,” Weller said. “Sometimes they were able to take two to three days’ worth of meals. It helped them along with their financial well-being.

“I think people are extremely grateful for the meals. I think we’ve got a good thing going here. And we’re pretty proud of it, too.”