We purchase many different household items to be able to provide the basics for veterans as they are transitioning from Homelessness into an apartment or home. These include countertop microwaves, pop up toasters, coffeemakers, sheets and comforters for their bed. We also purchase plungers & toilet brush sets with cleanser, start up quantities of laundry soap, dish soap, Bath Towels, pot holders, kitchen towels, toilet paper, paper towels, shower curtains and even shower gel and deodorant.
Due to space we often order 6-10 of an item to be able to have it ready for when we receive a veteran's request for furniture & household items.
Most all of the veterans we serve move in with absolutely nothing. Our mission is to help make this new empty space 'Home Sweet Home". Generally the veteran doesn't have transportation or means to just go to the store, or even the finances to go purchase a lot of the what I call "smalls", the little things we don't think about that we use every day, such as pots and pans, dishes, silverware, drinking glasses to name a few items.
By providing these "smalls" the veteran is able to set up their place and take ownership, to be able to sit down on their couch, look around, breath and know that they are beginning a new positive journey and there are others who care and want to see them succeed.
We also collect gently used furniture couches, comfy chairs, dinette tables and chairs, end tables, night stand, lamps, the list goes on. These we store in our 5200 sq ft warehouse. We have volunteers that assist with keeping the warehouse in order, however our greatest needs are for funds to assist with picking up the furniture and also delivering them to veterans.
Approximately 40% of our veterans have a SSVF grant that covers the cost of a moving company picking up the household from our warehouse and delivering it to the veteran and setting it up in their new place. The other 60 % are responsible for their own move, many of these veterans are on a low fixed income and are unable to afford the expense of movers, often times Operation Sweet Life Inc works toward covering the cost of movers.
The furniture and household items we provide to these veterans is at no charge so they can focus on getting movers, we have a couple of moving companies that assist, one is a veteran owned company also.
A long term goal is to acquire a van similar to a Ford Transit 250, with much more cargo space than a typical cargo van. This goal would help us to be able to pick up smaller furniture donations, not having to be concerned about the weather, plus it would be able to transport furniture for a one bedroom apartment for those veterans who aren't able to afford a moving company.
Operation Sweet Life Inc serves a 15 county area which includes Chicago land and suburbs , our focus is serving veterans transitioning from homelessness. We work with Jesse Brown VA, Edward Hines Jr VA and Captain Lovell FHCC's HUD/VASH programs as well as working with Midwest Shelter for Homeless veterans in Wheaton, Illinois. These veterans are vetted and have a caseworker that is working with them to be successful in this new season.
Operation Sweet Life's goal is to be an encouragement, to take the burden off of the veteran trying to start over and not having furniture to be able to relax and enjoy their new place. We do serve a lot of veteran families who are coming out of difficult times for many reasons, we give them hope, share love so they believe they will succeed.
Operation Sweet Life Inc began May 10, 2021, since then we have served 346 veterans and provided approximately $382,460 value of furniture and household items. For 2025, we have served 175 Veterans value of $201,208. We are grateful to established our nonprofit in an area that is very generous and near several senior living residence. Many of our donations come from house clean outs when a family member has passed and the family lives out of state and they are anxious to put the house on the market so they donate the furniture to Operation Sweet Life Inc so that they can support our veterans. Generally the furniture is in excellent shape, many of our donations of furniture comes from Veteran families, veterans serving veterans.
We have established a couple of registries to help with purchasing small kitchen appliances, sheets and bed linens.
Operation Sweet Life has grown a lot in the 4.5 years since being established, we appreciate your consideration.
