H-E-B serves breakfast to veterans and their families

Copperas Cove’s H-E-B Plus! served up a free pancake breakfast for veterans and their families on Wednesday for Veterans Day, and also as part of the store’s corporate initiative, Operation Appreciation.

 

H-E-B partners assisted with flipping pancakes and cleaning tables. Tim Smith, the store’s general manager, spent time at one of several griddles during the two-hour breakfast. The Copperas Cove store was one of 275 of H-E-B’s more than 360 stores participating, Smith said.

 

Betty Price, president of the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce, was also there to lend a hand, and with the help of the PA system, she invited veterans in the store to stop by for breakfast which included pancakes, muffins, fresh fruit, along with milk, juice and coffee.

 

This is the third year the store has hosted the breakfast on Veterans Day.

 

“I definitely think it’s the right thing to do,” said Smith. “Our company is so great that it provides us an opportunity to give back to those who serve.”

 

In addition to having Veterans Day breakfasts since the inception of Operation Appreciation in 2013, H-E-B has hired more than 2,500 veterans or active-duty service members, mailed over 300 care packages to deployed service members during the holidays, and has recognized thousands of its veteran employees across the company

 

As far as the Cove H-E-B Plus! goes, Smith said at this time they have about 17 veterans currently employed at the Copperas Cove store, and has had as many as 26 veterans employed at the store. That number can fluctuate and there had been more in the past, but some employees get promoted or move to other stores.

 

Administrative manager Jennifer Cotter estimated that about 100 veterans had breakfast Wednesday morning at the store.

 

H-E-B also partners with Operation Finally Home and the Gary Sinise Foundation to build and give away homes to severely wounded heroes and their families. H-E-B’s statewide campaign raises funds for the homes and other military serving non-profits including the Military Child Education Coalition, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and the USO. Customers can make donations in stores through November 17. Since 2013 H-E-B and the H-E-B Tournament of Champions have built nine mortgagefree, fully furnished homes across Texas for wounded heroes and their families, with two more finishing construction in early 2016.