Diana Gregory Outreach Services (DGOS) began as a fresh produce delivery service out of a pick-up truck in 2009. Since then, the organization has grown to support 20,000 seniors, many of whom are veterans, with its mobile food drives and nutrition education initiatives. With support from the Walmart Foundation, a LISC Equitable Food Access grant is helping DGOS hire more staff and increase the number of veterans and others they can serve.
When Dennis McGarry returned from the Vietnam War in 1969, he landed a job as a railroad dining car chef right away and rarely had to worry about where his next meal was coming from. But in the decades since, his friends who also served in Vietnam and other conflicts haven’t always been as fortunate—food and housing insecurity are chronic issues for U.S. veterans—and he’s found that resources to support them are scarce.
“I would try to help them out and try to locate services for them, [but] there wasn't any help,” he said.
Later, while teaching a monthly cooking class for residents of his Phoenix apartment building, he met Diana Gregory, founder and CEO of the eponymous Diana Gregory Outreach Services (DGOS), an organization dedicated to fighting food insecurity across the city. DGOS initially launched its mobile Gregory’s Fresh Market with a focus on providing seniors, many of whom were veterans, with healthy food options. Gregory decided to expand the effort to include pop-ups at VA hospitals six years ago. At this fall’s edition of Veggies for Veterans on Nov. 14, the organization will distribute 700 bags of produce at Phoenix’s Carl T. Hayden Medical Center.
What started in 2009 with a pickup truck and a nimble team of volunteers has been a passion project for Diana Gregory since she retired after working for 30 years in sales and marketing at Anheuser-Busch. It has grown into an initiative providing thousands of pounds of fresh produce to those in need. Through a $110,000 LISC Equitable Food Access grant funded by the Walmart Foundation, Gregory is scaling the organization's efforts and will support 20,000 seniors and veterans with food access and nutrition education this year.
Since 2020, DGOS has also received $175,000 from LISC through the Funds to Feed Initiative which is made possible by the City of Phoenix. The Equitable Food Access grant will help DGOS increase the frequency of its distribution events and support 20 percent more people than in 2022.
“This milestone could not have been reached without the funding provided by LISC,” Gregory said.
The grant has allowed DGOS to bring on more staff and expand their reach by piloting a volunteer engagement model that offers stipends to drivers trained to pack and deliver fresh produce, explained La Shonya McNeil, a program officer with LISC’s health team.
“This has helped the organization attract a cadre of veteran and senior volunteers committed to improving food access and social connection among fellow, yet underserved, veterans and seniors across Phoenix,” she said.
DGOS is one of eight LISC Equitable Food Access grantee partners addressing local food system inequities across the US through a range of interventions, from hosting neighborhood client choice food pantries to promoting food policy changes.
“It’s a privilege to support our local partners at the forefront of ensuring the people who have selflessly served our country have, at a minimum, consistent access to nourishing food,” McNeil said.
McGarry, both a volunteer and beneficiary of Veggies for Veterans, is grateful for Gregory’s work to fill the gap in veteran aid. He sees a need for more support as government assistance can be limited.
“It's only the veterans that happen to be seniors that will benefit. But there are a lot of veterans that haven't reached that age yet, [and] they need help,” McGarry said. “They're kind of falling through the cracks.”
While the high rate of mental health issues and homelessness among veterans receives significant attention, lack of food access is an often overlooked yet pressing concern, Gregory said. In the U. S., one in nine working-age veterans lives in food-insecure households, and one in four veterans has diabetes, a condition that can be directly linked to poor nutrition. Gregory hopes supplying fresh food can provide healthier options for veterans and their households.
“A bag of produce is the difference between having a meal and starving,” she said, recalling one Veggies for Veterans attendee who used the produce to feed their family of eight.
Recognizing veterans for their contributions is a crucial part of the program. Gregory ensures everyone who receives a bag of produce is also thanked for their service.
“We had some Vietnam veterans that told us, ‘Oh, we don't hear that.’ A lot of them may be homeless and they'll say they don't hear [an expression of gratitude] that often,” she said. “We're really excited about that, and helping enrich [their] lives through healthy food.”
Gregory’s decision to give back through DGOS goes back to her childhood. She remembers realizing she lived in a food desert as an eight-year-old when she jumped in to help her elderly neighbor, Ms. Fanny, who would take two buses to get to the supermarket and then had to carry her groceries up several flights of stairs.
“I made a vow as a young girl that when I grew up, I wanted to do something on a big scale to really help seniors,” veterans and non-veterans alike, she said. “Now we feed thousands and thousands of Ms. Fannies.”