The past two weekends Newhall American Legion Post 507’s Legion Family has teamed up with the Santa Clarita Grocery, and the first-responders and military group the Guardians to provide a Veterans Appreciation drive-thru hot dog lunch for area veterans and their families.

But for Sons of The American Legion Squadron 507 Commander Mike Merlo, the two days were much more than free meals and a chance to thank those who served. It was a safe break from stay-at-home for those veterans who may be struggling even more with the new norm of little or no personal contact with the outside world.

“Especially the Legion members that are used to having a place they can call home, which would be their post – they’re comfortable there, they’re used to having some sort of social interaction,” Merlo said. “Some of them, it may have taken them years to get to a point where they even are comfortable going out and having social interaction.

“For that to all be pulled out from under them, just like anybody, there’s a lot of depression going on for I think almost everybody across the United States. That was kind of the magic of this idea that Brad came up with: It’s a possible but also responsible way of having people get out of the house and not put themselves in any type of harm.”

“Brad” is fellow SAL Squadron 82 member Bradley Grose, who founded Santa Clarita Grocery as a “charity grocery store” that provides perishable groceries, dairy products, produce, bread and basic necessities to families in need. “He had this idea about veterans that were caught up with being inside their house, kind of captive, afraid to go out because they may get sick,” Merlo said. “He came up with this idea about barbecuing hot dogs and having them just do a drive-thru where they can get out, take a drive, get a safe meal and be on their way.

“It was just a bunch of like-minded people and organizations coming together and just trying to do something nice for our veterans.”

Grose said pairing up with Post 507 was an easy choice. “What we like to do as a charity is team up with like-minded people,” Grose said. “Being that I’m with the Sons out here in Newhall, I thought it’s just a natural.”

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