Missouri posts provide dinner to families with veterans receiving VA care

After the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital’s Mid-Missouri Fisher House opened last June, Eric Fizer of American Legion Post 273 in Fayette, Mo., wanted to do something so members of the post could interact with the families staying at the new facility.

Brainstorming with Fisher House staff, Fizer came up with an idea – and in the process was able to share what Post 273 and another area post are doing on the community level with American Legion National Commander Daniel Seehafer.

Earlier this fall, Post 273 and Glasgow’s American Legion Post 211 – which will merge with Post 273 in February to become Howard County American Legion Post 273 – cooked and served a meal for approximately 30 Fisher House guests who have family members receiving treatment at the adjacent VA hospital. The meal coincided with Seehafer’s visit to the Department of Missouri; the national commander was able to attend the meal.

“I went to the post and said, ‘Let’s do something at the Fisher House that’s different,’” said Fizer, who serves as Post 273’s commander and is the Truman hospital’s Administrative Officer for Supply Chain Management. “I was asking Nolan Pryor, who is the assistant director over there, about what we could do for the families. We came up with, ‘Why don’t we do a meal here.’”

With the post’s support, and with Post 211 wanting to support the effort, Fizer scheduled the dinner for the day that Seehafer was to be in Columbia for his official visit. On the day, members of Post 273 and Post 111 cooked approximately 30 meals of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, corn, rolls and brownies for dessert.

The meal also gave the post’s Legion Family members the opportunity to visit with the family members staying at the Fisher House. “One of the ladies I sat down and talked with said she hadn’t had a good meal in the past nine days. She’d just been snacking because that’s how stressed she was and worried she was about her veteran,” Fizer said. “She was here by herself caring for her husband, and she said she was just grateful to eat some home-cooked, tasty food. It was just peaceful for her.

“And there was another family there, and they were from Lake of the Ozarks and wanted to talk about how their post could get involved with doing something like that at the Fisher House.”

Fizer said it also was nice that the national commander could be there to see the work the posts are doing within their community.

“It shows that he’s putting the message out to Legionnaires about what needs to be done in communities.” he said. “But him to see it being done, it was probably rewarding for him. That these things are being done in communities and that the outreach is there.”