Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) — March 5, 2025 — Riceland Foods partnered with the Arkansas Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and several other local veterans’ advocacy groups to offer a free veterans’ benefits clinic in Jonesboro called Operation Homegrown Heroes.
The clinic began Tuesday and will continue through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jonesboro Rice Division Employee Center, located at 216 N. Gee St. This event is open to all United States veterans, including the more than 80 veterans who currently work at the Riceland Foods Company in Jonesboro. No appointment is necessary, although veterans must bring a valid ID.
KC Capers, senior manager of training and culture at Riceland Foods in Jonesboro, said on Tuesday this is the first time that the company has hosted the clinic, however, he hopes to continue it annually because Riceland Foods is a veteran-friendly company, and they want more Arkansans to know that.
“This right here is one of the ways to help develop a better culture,” Capers said. “To take care of our veterans because we got a lot of guys and gals that are veterans here at Riceland Food and a lot of them don’t know what type of benefits that they’re entitled to.”
The clinic is intended to educate veterans on benefits they can receive, assist with compensation, pensions and healthcare claims, the appeals process, and connect them with a variety of support services within their communities.
With Capers’ help, Riceland partnered with the Arkansas VA, the Jonesboro American Legion, local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) chapters, and veterans’ advocacy groups, as well as veteran service officers (VSO) from across several Northeast Arkansas counties.
“Honestly, they just need to show up and talk with the VSOs to file an initial claim,” Capers said. That’s the goal is just to get the claim started, and then do follow up, so when they come in, they’re going to fill out an intake information so that the VSOs have the information to follow back up with them. The great thing about this is they get that one on one of having direct contact. If there’s any questions that they don’t know or don’t understand, they can ask the VSO.”
Robin Davis, marketing director of First Choice Home Care, said the company can help veterans find the services they need to increase the quality of life.
“There are services available, but if someone doesn’t know that the service is available or they don’t know how to access it, then that’s a problem,” Davis said. “We want to find the people who need the service and to connect them with it. Especially veterans because they have earned the benefits.”
Nicholas Bertucci, District Veterans Service Officer (DVSO) for the Arkansas Department of Veteran Affairs for Districts 5 and 7, said Operation Homegrown Heroes came about after Capers called him a couple of months back and said Riceland Foods had around 80 veterans needing benefits.
Together they decided to get the counties together and do a huge community event that was open to the public.
“That’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re doing this event, because there’s people in Riceland Foods right now that are either discouraged in some way, shape or form,” Bertucci said. “Getting your benefits shows more incentive to the U.S. government that we need to continue to give these benefits to all our veterans.”