Diana Gregory Outreach Services (DGOS) began as a grocery-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.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, we’d like you to meet some of the extraordinary U.S. veterans who have become small business owners—and recipients of LISC relief and resiliency grants. These ex-servicepeople are dedicated to supporting their families and enriching their communities by offering vital services, goods and jobs.

Like millions of entrepreneurs across the country, U.S. veterans who are small business owners have faced the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. LISC's Rapid Relief and Resiliency Fund and other small business grant-making efforts took veterans into special account and we are honored to have been able to support hundreds of veteran-owned businesses keep their doors open and weather the nearly nine months since lockdowns began. To mark Veterans Day 2020, we are sharing the stories of three of them, and each credits their military experience with helping them bend with the winds of change, however severe.

In honor of Veterans Day, we are sharing the story of Gerald Hurt, a formerly homeless veteran who recently moved into a new supportive housing community in Danville, Illinois. Together with the National Equity Fund and Bring them HOMES, LISC is working to make sure every veteran has the home he or she needs.