ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two-hundred military families based out of Fort Knox were on the receiving end of sacrifice Tuesday.
Thanks to Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization providing resources to military families for success, each family ate a meal, picked up ingredients for holiday meals and snagged a few gifts for the kids.
"It's so fun to see all the soldiers and all the families and all the kids get so excited with the games and Santa," said Jill Eskin-Smith with Operation Homefront. "It's just a great, heartwarming day."
The event, hosted at Elizabethtown's American Legion, is called Holiday Meals for Military. It's been going on for nearly a decade.
"Anything that has to do with helping military families, I'm all for," said Wendy Astrologo, who volunteered Tuesday.
The event began Thanksgiving 2009 after its founder encountered a military family in a supermarket. The family couldn't afford to pay for groceries. Since then, the program has grown to providing around 10,000 meals nationally this year.
200 military families were served Tuesday.
"It's really a blessing," U.S. Army member Bryan Odom said. "It helps out a lot during the holiday season."
Odom has a wife and three teenage kids, and holidays are tough for them. Events like this are able to help make this season more enjoyable. Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, Beam Suntory and other partners helped provide the meals and gifts.
"It really does mean a lot to know there's a spouse being supported, a child that's being supported and that that military member knows that their family is being supported back home," Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Sloane Lucas said.Â
You can learn more about Operation Homefront's missions by clicking here.
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