Veteran gives back to community by delivering Project Angel Heart meals
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - One Colorado Springs veteran is continuing to serve in our community even after his service.
For 30 years, Jeff Alexander was an Air Force medic. After retiring and moving to Southern Colorado a few years ago, he began volunteering at Project Angel Heart, which is a non-profit based in Denver that started in 1991 and expanded to Colorado Springs in 2015. The group delivers specifically tailored meals to people with a severe illness or diagnosis that have trouble cooking or getting to the store easily.
"It makes that food actually medicine when we take it out and deliver it," says Alexander. "That's really why we do what we do. I can take out maybe 10-12 bags on my average delivery so simple math it's a good amount of meals we take out."
Project Angel Heart deliveries have become a weekly routine for Jeff. Sometimes his daughters even join in on the volunteering. Jeff says it's a rewarding way to spend his time while helping others.
"Because I was a medic in the Air Force for 30 years and having seen firsthand what people do or don't do to take care of themselves and keep returning back for me to get them propped up again and send them back out, that was a lot of what I did in the Air Force," says Alexander. "This is different because I get to help them more directly with the food and delivering it and get to see a smile and deliver a smile sometimes and it's a great thing to be doing."
And those who benefit from the meals are very thankful.
"He's great, every time I see him he always has kind words, Mr. Frank he calls me," says Frank Schmidt. "I have been treated pretty good by Project Angel, it has been a good experience."
Even with coronavirus challenges, Sally Rothstein, the Regional Director with Project Angel Heart, says the mission has remained the same.
"Providing good healthy meals as a baseline and then about two-thirds of our clients need some kind of modification of their meals to fit what their body is going through and often times there are multiple things that people need," says Rothstein. "Not only are their kidneys not working properly, but perhaps there's diabetes and a heart condition so nutritional needs complex and that really is the niche and our passion to be able to provide meals that people can rely on that is difficult to plan out for, much less make and much less eat."
And Jeff is adjusting to the changes too. Not just with the pandemic, but with his girlfriend Emily's cancer diagnosis. She is now receiving Project Angel Heart meals.
"Deliveries have been coming to the home which has been quite a switch and I go out to the door and pick up a bag this time instead of being the one delivering it, but overall her health has improved."
Project Angel Heart is made up of mostly donations, and it costs almost a million dollars a year to resource the Colorado Springs program. If you interested in donating or receiving meals click here.
