SAM Center, Serving Area Military and Veterans

Founded in March 2015, Serving Area Military and Veterans was created to assist local heroes and their families. We are a community of veterans and military supporters working together. We were formed out of the belief that we can make the lives of service members, veterans and their widows better, Serving Area Military collaborates with other community agencies to ensure programs are not being duplicated, while the gap in assistance is being filled. Serving Area Military operates the SAM Center facility located in Massillon, Ohio. The location is provided by American Legion Post 221 on a zero dollar lease. We run our Veteran's Choice Commissary from that location on M, W, and F between 9am and 2:00pm. The continued growth and operations of the SAM Center, along with other programs offered by Serving Area Military, are financed through private donations from individuals, civic groups, businesses and private grants. We are the conduit of the community's love for our veterans. When the community puts forward a need, we will strive to find a way to fill that need. We are honored to continue serving those who served.

Founded 10 years ago, our SAM Center takes our mission of "Serving Those Who Served" very seriously. The SAM Center provides a wide variety of resources and services for the military and veteran community. We host multiple outreach programs that impact hundreds of veterans and their families. In October, for almost 9 years, we host a Veterans Resource Fair which draws almost 100 venders and between 400-500 veterans and community members. The event has a financial impact of over $1-2 Million and allows veterans to meet many needs in one place. SAM Center strives to address food insecurity in the veteran community through our Annual Thanksgiving food distribution. We assist around 480 families a year through giving out Thanksgiving food bags that include everything the veteran needs to serve Thanksgiving Dinner to their family, or to bring a dish to another’s table. Our Christmas Distribution also has a huge impact on the veteran community by allowing veterans and military families to sign up for assistance over the Christmas holiday by allowing them to come to our facility and ‘shop’ for toys and needed items for their families for the holiday. In addition to age-appropriate toys, games, puzzles, craft items, and stuffed animals, each family also receives coats, hats, gloves, socks, a blanket, clothing, wrapping paper, a Christmas tree, and groceries for their holiday. Last year we serviced over 120 families. We also initiated our Lodging Kit program which works with local transitional housing facilities in multiple counties to provide every veteran who moves into permanent housing a kit of basic household essentials to ensure their long-term success. At our Massillon location, we actively work to eliminate food insecurity in the veteran community through a Veterans Choice Commissary which allows Veterans to make appointments for monthly visits to select around 25 pounds of food monthly, as needed. We also host a community pantry once a month, which serves to connect the veteran community to the non-veteran community. In addition to the commissary, we donate 7-day emergency food bags to any who demonstrate a need, as well as donate 100 bags a month to the Cleveland VA and 20 bags a month to the Canton VA. The Canal Fulton Veteran Resource Center is our hub of Veteran knowledge, assistance services, classes, and social engagement. We assist veterans in filling out paperwork for lost records and medals or pre-need burial, assist veterans in scheduling appointments to their local VSC, and assist them in finding the appropriate venue for financial assistance. Through our newsletter that reaches 10,000 veterans and community members, we stay connected to and link veterans with other veteran-based organizations that meet their needs, and we offer a wide-range of classes to Care for Veterans’ emotional, physical, and social well-being. We have events almost every day of the week, including weekly pilates and massages, bi-weekly yoga, bi-monthly children’s yoga, weekly water-color classes, bi-monthly open-studios and monthly Art classes for both individual veterans and their families. We offer weekly guitar instruction classes and bi-monthly veteran guitar jam-sessions to hone skills and stay connected; we also offer a weekly “coffee and conversation” social fellowship time to reconnect and develop friendships in the community. In addition to these social and skill-based services, SAM Center VRC also co-sponsors monthly “Lunch and Learns” with the Stark VSC to highlight topics pertinent to the Veteran community. They also work closely with the SAM Center by providing Service Officers to come out once a month to work one-on-one with the veterans of stark county. We also, of course, offer events throughout the year to support veterans, their families, and other veteran organizations.