Celebrate Veterans Day with our suggestions on where to shop, where to donate, and what to do.
Military veterans deserve our thanks and appreciation every day of the year, but there’s one day a year it’s guaranteed. This Veterans Day, there are plenty of ways to support and celebrate veterans across the country. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite veteran-owned businesses to shop from, veteran organizations to support or donate to, and books and podcasts about the veteran or active duty experience to listen to. Whether you served yourself, you come from a military family, or you’re just grateful to our service members, check out our picks for how to show your appreciation and give back.
Veteran-Owned Businesses to Shop
Black Rifle Coffee Company
Black Rifle Coffee Company is an American Veteran-owned and operated premium, small-batch coffee roastery. After spending 20 years in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, a Special Forces soldier, and a CIA contractor, founder Evan Hafer started the company back in 2006. They offer a discount for active and retired service members, and also donate their coffee to “deployed service members, community programs, and other causes that strive to make our nation great.”
Boldfoot Socks
Boldfoot socks are “100% American grown, sewn, family and veteran-owned.” The company, started by retired Army veteran Joshua Law, donates 5 percent of profits from every pair to U.S. military and veterans in need of jobs, housing, improved health, and more. Plus, their socks are darn cute and come in a variety of fun prints.
BUBS Naturals
Founded in memory of Glen “Bub” Doherty, a veteran who passed in 2012, BUBS Naturals aims to preserve his love of adventure and life by creating products that help you lead the healthiest life you can. The two founders created a collagen-protein powder blend, MCT Oil Powder, and more to help you add vitamins and nutrients into your diet while also providing your body with a burst of energy.
Hometown Hero CBD
Founded by a veteran to help support veterans, Hometown Hero is a CBD brand that aims to help relieve pain through the power of CBD and cannabis. They also donate a portion of the profit made from every product to nonprofit organizations that help veterans. Some organizations include The Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Soldiers’ Angels, and Operation Finally Home.
Chunk Nibbles
Sweet and salty lovers will drool over this snack brand that combines the flavors into bite-sized pieces. Based on his grandmother’s delicious snack mix recipe, Brad Cocklin created Chunk Nibbles to share one of his favorite things with the rest of the world. While the brand isn’t veteran-owned, it has partnered with Blue Star Service Dogs, a non-profit organization that rescues and trains shelter dogs to be service dogs and pairs them with military veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries.
Bottle Breacher
Started by former Navy SEAL Eli Crane and his wife Jen, Bottle Breacher sells bottle openers from recycled, authentic decommissioned .50-caliber bullets. The couple has been married for 16 years and started the company from their home in Tucson, AZ in 2012. These openers are beautiful and make fantastic gifts, and the company donates a portion of all proceeds to military veterans, active military personnel, first responders, and various other non-profits.
Heroes Vodka
Heroes Vodka was founded in 2009 by U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Travis McVey in honor of two of his friends who died while serving. The company, based in Frankfort, Kentucky, says that “a significant portion of every purchase is donated annually to American Veterans, Active Duty Military, and their families.” It was first bottled on Veterans Day just over ten years ago — on 11.11.11.
Podcasts, Books, and Documentaries About the Military and Veteran Experience
Home/Front Podcast
Rough Translation, a podcast from NPR that features stories about cultural mistranslations and what we can learn from them, recently ran an unbelievably brilliant, incredibly produced miniseries called Home/Front: Conversations Across The Civilian-Military Divide. One of the stories is about a woman named Marla Ruzicka, an American civilian who traveled to Afghanistan to work with the military to help the families of Afghan casualties. In two episodes, the first called Marla’s War and the second called Marla’s List, the podcast reveals the incredible accomplishments Ruzicka made in her short life, and how she helped to solve a seemingly impossible problem for the American military.
Humans of New York’s Invisible Wounds Series
In 2016, Humans of New York founder Brandon Stanton decided to partner with The Headstrong Project, a mental health treatment nonprofit for our nation’s military-connected individuals, veterans, and their families. For the project, Stanton focused his camera on a number of American military veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families in a series called Invisible Wounds. The result is a beautiful, heartbreaking array of stories about grief, trauma, PTSD, and the lack of understanding that civilians have for the experience of the American military.
Once a Warrior: How One Veteran Found a New Mission Closer to Home by Jake Wood
In 2010, after serving four years in the Marine Corps with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake Wood wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life — until he saw news coverage of the devastating earthquake that had just hit Haiti. His impulse was to act. Knowing that his Marine Corps training would be a major asset in a disaster zone, he gathered a team of fellow vets to assist on the ground. This was the genesis of Team Rubicon, an organization started by Wood, which mobilizes veterans to continue their service by providing relief to those affected by natural disasters. In his 2020 book Once a Warrior, Wood writes about his time serving overseas, the difficult transition home, and how he ultimately found his life’s purpose.
Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
In 2014, William H. McRaven, a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, gave the commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin. In the speech, McRaven shared the ten principles he learned during his Navy Seal training that he has used throughout his life. One of these principles? If you want to change the world, start by making your bed. The viral speech served as the inspiration for the book Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, which offers practical advice and inspiring anecdotes on how to face life’s greatest challenges.
The Invisible War (2012, available on HBO Max)
This explosive 2012 documentary explores the alarmingly high rate of sexual assault and violence in the military, and why these crimes so often go under-reported or unpunished. After then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta viewed the film, he issued a directive ordering all sexual assault cases to be handled by senior officers at the rank of colonel or higher, effectively ending the practice of commanders quietly handling these cases from within their own units.
Where to Donate on Veterans Day
The Gary Sinise Foundation
After playing Lieutenant Dan in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, actor Gary Sinise was floored by the response he received from veterans. Having come from a military family, Sinise became very involved in helping veterans after the September 11 attacks. In April 2009, while visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Sinise met the first post-9/11 quadruple amputee, U.S. Army Specialist Brendan Marrocco. The then-FDNY commissioner asked Sinise to help raise money to build an accessible home for Marrocco, Sinise agreed, which led to the founding of The Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011. One of the foundation’s biggest programs is called Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment, or R.I.S.E, and it provides mortgage-free, fully-customized homes for wounded veterans.
K9s for Warriors
Founded with the dual goal of helping to end the epidemic of veteran suicide and save dogs from high-kill shelters, K9s for Warriors provides highly trained service dogs to military veterans suffering from physical or emotional trauma, PTSD, sexual abuse, or brain injury. Most of the dogs are rescued from high-kill shelters and trained to help comfort and heal their veteran companion. It was founded in 2011 by Shari Duval, a military mom who noticed that after her son returned from Iraq with PTSD, he only felt like himself when he was with his dog.
Operation Gratitude
Operation Gratitude started in March 2003 by sending care packages to deployed service members in Iraq. Now, the nonprofit helps place civilian volunteers with projects that help to thank and serve deployed troops, recruit graduates, veterans, military families, first responders, and healthcare heroes. Their service initiatives include letter-writing campaigns for deployed service members and veterans, care package assembly and distribution, and collecting and providing donations and resources for veterans in need.
