Carbon County is partnering with the county Veterans Council, area food pantries and Second Harvest Food Bank to create a new initiative to help veterans who may be in need of food.

On Thursday, the commissioners welcomed representatives from Second Harvest to speak about the MilitaryShare Program, which is starting in Carbon County. The county was the last of the six counties Second Harvest serves to begin this program, which began in October 2020.

Lindsey Parks, program administrator, overviewed the program for the food pantries and veterans organizations in attendance.

“The MilitaryShare Program is one of the food bank’s newest programs,” she said. “Our goal is to have a distribution site in each of the six counties Second Harvest serves.

The program would be run out of one central location in Carbon County and there would be a total of 25 boxes of food a month designated for veterans at this time until a true need is determined.

Parks said that any veteran, as well as National Guard and active duty military and their families will be eligible for the food boxes as long as they meet the requirement of being at or below 150% of the federal poverty line.

“This is intended to be a supplement on top of what they already might be receiving at a food pantry,” she said.

Veteran food boxes would include a gallon of milk, dozen eggs, two pounds of meat, a bag of fresh produce and a box a shelf-stable foods.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich asked if the food bank was already identifying veterans.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that is where the Veterans Council comes in, noting that they are hoping to hold a signup for the new program at the Lehighton American Legion Post home.

“We’re trying to determine are we going to have 20 in Lansford or are we going to have 20 in Palmerton,” he said. “We really don’t know how many we’re going to have.”

Henry Desrosiers, Veterans Council president, asked some questions regarding how the operation would go and how do the food banks determine veteran status as well as if this is continued to a deceased veteran’s spouse.

Parks said that while Second Harvest doesn’t collect personal information, it would be up to the food banks, who already know pretty well the customers they serve. The food banks already have application forms for normal distributions.

“We are looking for a pantry that has mechanisms in place to distribute the food that already is serving a community,” she said, adding that the program can be adjusted as kinks arise.

Some of the food pantries questioned storage since refrigeration is not always possible for long periods of time at a location.

Ahner said he was hoping it could be the same date as the senior boxes so that delivery and distribution would happen the same day.

The county is hoping to hold a signup for veterans later this month, possibly for Aug. 14, at the Lehighton American Legion.