Military Order of the Purple Heart assisting Central Texas veterans financially amid inflation

How the Military Order of the Purple Heart is helping Texas veterans financially

Due to economic impacts, more veterans are needing financial assistance and organizations throughout Texas are stepping in to help.

AUSTIN, Texas - In this FOX 7 Care Force, tougher economic times are resulting in many veteran service organizations focusing more on financial assistance for their clients.

James "Jim" Bracken with the Texas Capitol Chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart joins FOX 7's Mike Warren to discuss how the organization is helping veterans financially.

MIKE: First of all, is financial help becoming a bigger part of what you do?

JIM: We've done financial assistance for years it's one of our objectives but what we've seen after COVID is more phone calls for help with rent, groceries, gas.

MIKE: Give us some examples of how are you helping?

JIM: We have a veteran in Bastrop County that needed help repairing a washer/dryer and groceries, so she went to the Bastrop County veteran services officer, and they contacted us and we sent an officer to her home and spoke with her and we made arrangements to repair the dryer and get her some groceries. So that's one example where the vet knew to call the county service officer and we are on speed dial with Travis, Williamson and Bastrop. Those county veteran service officers know to call us and we connect with the veteran.

MIKE: How many vets are you helping in say a year?

JIM: During COVID it was slow because there were so many other resources but on average a few a month and we have rules and things that we look at when we give financial assistance, but I'd say between 20-30 a year.

MIKE: How much are you raising and how much are you spending?

JIM: We try to raise between 2-12 thousand a year, we exceeded that for a few years and then we give it all away. We don't have a need for funds, we don't have to maintain a facility we are Purple Heart recipients and we want to give everything we raise back to the community of veterans. You don't have to be a combat vet or Purple Heart recipient to get financial help from us, we help all vets and dependents that are in need.