Written by: Aaron Rasmussen, Iraq Veteran and CFO of Sonora Vets Helping Vets
Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Supporters,
As Thanksgiving approaches, I want to share the deeper story of the little food program that has been quietly feeding Tuolumne County for almost thirty years, and how it is woven into the very origins of Vets Helping Vets in recent years.
It all started with flea markets. Our founder, Russell Carpenter, began collecting donated items, tools, furniture, household goods, whatever people no longer needed, and selling them at local flea markets to raise money for struggling veterans in 2010. Those early weekends under pop-up canopies became the seed that grew into Vets Helping Vets in 2013. The success of those flea markets eventually allowed Russell to open the VHV Store around 2015, a place where donated goods could be sold year-round to support veterans in need. (COVID and skyrocketing overhead finally forced the store to close, but the flea markets never stopped.)
The food program itself, Harvest Ministries began around 1996 when Matt Yerington saw how many local families were quietly struggling with food insecurity and decided to do something about it. He started the feeding ministry from scratch, handing out groceries and hot meals to anyone who needed them. Janice Yerington, meanwhile, was running a beloved kids’ art class that brought creativity and joy to a whole generation of Tuolumne children. Dave Dumas, a Vietnam Veteran, volunteered with the feeding program from the very beginning. When the Yerington family move away in 2000, Dave stepped up, took the keys, and kept the local effort alive through sheer grit and determination.
For the next two decades, Dave ran Harvest Ministries single-handedly picking up weekly donations from every grocery store in the area, stocking the little food closet at the Tuolumne Veterans Hall, and serving free hot meals every Thursday afternoon and every third Sunday morning without fail.
The Tuolumne Flea Markets were established in 2010 by Tuolumne Park and Recreation Department staff and other community members including Dave as a way to generate revue for the community. Eventually the flea market was completely handed to Dave to support Harvest Ministries as a funding source, with the fees collected from vendors.
In 2022, the two stories finally came together when Vets Helping Vets brought Harvest Ministries under our nonprofit umbrella so Dave could reach more donors to keep up with the growing demand on the program. Helping Dave specifically fulfills our mission of “Vets Helping Vets” and also reminds us of our roots.
Today those same flea markets that were the very heartbeat of how Vets Helping Vets began with Russell Carpenter remain the primary way we fund the Harvest Ministries food closet and keep VHV as a nonprofit alive. Every item sold by vendors who travel from far and wide helps put food on the plates of our local citizens and veterans. This past weekend we served more than 200 people at the Sunday community breakfast, about 60 more than usual.
From Russell’s first flea-market table in 2010, to Matt Yerington starting the feeding program in 1996, to Dave Dumas refusing to let it die in 2000, to the hundreds of volunteers who have set up and torn down canopies ever since, this is a thirty-year chain of ordinary people doing extraordinary things because they refused to look away.
Most folks drive past the Tuolumne Veterans Memorial Hall every day and have no idea that inside those walls, and under those flea-market tents, is an entire community safety net that has been hand-built and hand-maintained by veterans and neighbors who believe no one should go hungry.
With Thanksgiving just days away, it feels right to say “thank you” out loud to everyone who has ever donated, bought a $2 coffee mug, dropped off needed items, or stood in line for a plate of food when times were tight. Because of all of you, Tuolumne still has a place where the answer to “Are you hungry?” is always “Come on in.”
If you’d like to help keep this legacy alive, volunteer at a meal, save your good used items for the next flea market, or simply spread the word, we’d be grateful. For more information, please Contact Dave Dumas at 209-352-9772.
With deep respect and gratitude,
Aaron Rasmussen,
Iraq Veteran CFO of Sonora Vets Helping Vets
(A Special Thanks to the Sonora Area Foundation’s Lighthouse Fund)
