Food and toy drive benefits military families

Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Operation Homefront have joined ranks to bring food and toys to military families.

On Saturday, they distributed the donations to 75 Southern California servicemen and women.

Operation Homefront serves members of Vandenberg Air Force Base and Naval Base Ventura County throughout the year and invited them to Saturday’s event.

“Raytheon Intelligence & Space employees go to work every day to support our active duty military personnel and their important missions. We know the tremendous sacrifices that military service members and their families make on a daily basis, and that is why Raytheon Intelligence & Space is proud to work with Operation Homefront to serve them during the holiday season,” said Annabel Flores, vice president of electronic warfare systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space.

Raytheon Technologies employs more than 17,000 veterans, many of whom volunteer to help service members in events like the food and toy drive.

Last year’s drives took place in Northern Virginia and Richardson, Texas. Southern California was added to Raytheon’s agenda this year.

“While this was the first year that we’ve partnered with Operation Homefront in SoCal, we knew they’ve been helping support military service members locally for years, and knew we needed to get our employees involved in this year’s efforts,” Ms. Flores told the News-Press Monday.

A virtual program allowed the drive to provide 170 toys while keeping safe during the pandemic.

“The thing that really stuck out was the excitement and appreciation from the kids who came by to pick their own toys,” Ms. Flores said. “And our service members and their dependents were just as grateful and excited to receive the items for a warm holiday meal to prepare at home.”

Operation Homefront is one of 13 organizations that Raytheon supports as part of its “Fund in Support of Our Troops.”

email: ahanshaw@newspress.com