About Operation Feed Back .....
A Non Religious Organization - Public Charity
We are a project of the Empowering Parents, Inc. a Nevada chartered Non Profit Corporation. Empowering parents is a Federaly recognized 501(c)(3) non profit organization and public charity. We are recognized by NV Sales and Use as a Tax Exempt Entity.
Currently our Senior Staff is made up of the following members
Elaine and Paul Gademsky
Jerry Ignatich
Steve Hughes
Sami Coop
Both Operation Feed Back, and its parent organization are founded as non religious organizations.
Our staff and volunteers encompass diversity in a variety of areas, economic, heritage, religion and reasons for serving. We welcome people to volunteer whose heart is there to serve the community.
EMPOWERMENT - Providing a "Hand Up" rather than a "Hand Out"
Both Operation Feed Back and Hands of Hope believe that it is much better for both the individual and society to operate on the basis of providing a "Hand Up" to enable people to get back on their feet, than to continually provide no cost hand outs. The experience over the years has shown that people value and honor those programs where they contribute, rather that becoming part of the entitlement mentality that our government has foisted upon us with the long list of social programs.
ENTITLEMENT - NOT!! - No "Hand Outs" here
When the situation does arise that a new family shows up, and they do not have the "Shared Maintenance Fee", one of four things usually happens: 1. The other families in line will be asked if anyone can help sponsor them for this visit. 2. The books are checked to see if there are any sponsorships available 3. One of the staff may volunteer to sponsor the family. 4. If they are not sponsored, they will leave with a large amount of bread as a minimum. They are also given information, if needed, about other programs that may be of assistance to them in their time of need.
History of Operation Feed Back
Operation Feed Back started as an outgrowth of the weekly food pantry that Hands of Hope Ministries(HoHM) had been providing to the local community in the area surrounded by Vassar, Moana, S. Virgina and 395. The need to support our past, present and future members and immediate families of the military, became apparent as several of the staff at HoHM had experiences that related this personally.
Paul and Elaine's son joined the Marines in the fall of 2007 and went through Boot Camp at MCRD in San Diego. Sami's grandson also joined at the same time, and was in the same Battalion at MCRD. In interfacing with the recruiters, the recruits and new Marines, it became evident that some had joined to try to provide for their families. As the economic times did not leave a lot of available work that could provide sufficiently for their families. While they were becoming Marines, their families were struggling to sustain themselves.
While operating the food pantry for several years, we have run into many veterans (this encompasses any one that served their country and was honorably discharged from the service( Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Mechant Marines, Guard and Reserve)). Some of these valued participants would feel uneasy with one of two issues:
To address the situations outlined above, we spoke with our families, friends that are veterans, our staff that are veterans, active duty military, Guard, Reserve and their families. There was a consensus on several of issues:
