Post 306 in Middlesex, N.J., provides meals from local restaurants to patients in the Lyons VAMC military sexual trauma treatment unit.
In 2024, New Jersey Legionnaire and Sons of The American Legion member Vito LaSala Jr. was as Lyons VA Medical Center in Lyons, N.J., to get treatment for his back. A member of John W. Lupu Memorial Post 306 in Middlesex and commander of Squadron 306, LaSala asked the head of the facility’s women military sexual trauma treatment program what was going to be done for June’s Women Veterans Recognition Day.
The eight-week inpatient program is one of just a handful throughout the nation. Participants have to apply through their local VA facility and then cover the cost of transportation to the center.
“Vito said, ‘Hey, let’s do something for them. Have a dinner or something,’” Post 306 Adjutant Richard Sturtevant said. “And he decided we were going to do that.”
Since then, Post 306 has provided meals to two different cycles of women veterans going through the program, with another planned as the next set of patients arrive for their eight-week program.
Sturtevant said the Lyons VAMC’s cafeteria has been closed for renovations since before the coronavirus pandemic. Meals for inpatients come from a facility in New York and are frozen and last for 30 days. Homemade food isn’t allowed to be brought into the facility, so Post 306 works with local restaurants to provide the meals.
“We give them a menu from one of our local restaurants, and we let them order whatever they want,” Sturtevant said. “If they want two entrees, they got two entrees. We order it, we pick it up and then we bring it to them.
“One of the females (in the program) was a 25-year veteran and was in a combat situation. They brought her a hamburger and she started to cry. She said, ‘This is just amazing.’”
Males are not allowed inside the women MST unit, so meals have been delivered by Post 306 Commander Helena Gaither, other female members of the post and American Legion Auxiliary Unit 306.
When the meals are delivered, Post 306 Legion Family members also bring with them personal items such as tumblers and coffee travel mugs, as well as gift cards to purchase personal items in the Lyons VAMC.
Food has been provided for around 12 women veterans during the meals, as well as to facility staff who have worked with Post 306 to make the meal delivery possible.
Sturtevant said the plan is for the meal program to continue indefinitely, with efforts made to involve Middlesex County, The American Legion Department of New Jersey and other entities in helping support the women in the program.
It’s not the only support Post 306’s Legion Family provides to the veterans at the Lyons VAMC. Squadron 306 arranges and funds bowling outings for male patients being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
But the women in the MST program don’t leave the facility’s grounds and more often spend most of their time in the MST unit.
“Everybody needs help,” Sturtevant said. “And females are the most forgotten. They don’t get the priority that some of the other male (veterans) get.”
- Women Veterans