Veterans Produce - About Us

Veterans Produce is a veteran-run non-profit organization created to feed homeless and food insecure veterans.

We help break the cycle of food insecurity by empowering Veterans to provide for themselves. Building local community gardens enables 365-day access to healthy organic food.

Veterans work alongside each other, learning new skills and experiencing the rewarding nature of farming, growing healthy organic food by their own hands.

Founded in 2018 by T.C. Beckett, a retired United States Navy Chief Petty Officer.

After befriending a homeless Vietnam Army Veteran named “Tony” “The Chief” was compelled to do more to help his brother and sisters in arms.

As a boy T.C. experienced living in a food insecure environment and has compassion for those in need, especially his veteran brothers. T.C. continues his charitable activities donating his time and knowledge of aquaponic gardening to help feed veterans.

Veterans Produce plans to deploy veteran teams to build community gardens for homeless veteran communities, first in Texas partnering with veteran support organizations, and ultimately nationwide.

We are in the planning stages for several larger greenhouse systems to be built in 2022.

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Meet Our Team

T.C. "The Chief" Beckett - Executive Director

T.C. “The Chief” Beckett serves as Founder and Executive Director of Veterans Produce.

He is actively involved in numerous veteran support organizations and food banks addressing the needs of homeless and food insecure veterans.

He is a retired Navy Veteran with a passion for helping make a difference in the life of a veteran, one life at a time.

Kenny "The KenMan" Smith - Marketing & Communications Director

Kenny "The KenMan" Smith is a Navy veteran, a founding board member of Veterans Produce, and the man responsible for making sure this organization gets seen.

He served as an Aviation Electronics Technician with VAW-117 aboard the USS Enterprise and USS Abraham Lincoln during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and has spent the thirty-plus years since building brands, campaigns, and marketing systems for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 healthcare to small mission-driven nonprofits.

He founded The Expert Factory on a simple idea: the expertise is already there, somebody just has to reveal it.

He met The Chief, heard the mission, and has been on this board ever since.

Elizabeth Fields - Fundraising Strategist

Elizabeth Fields is President and Founder of Jackson Fields Consulting, which specializes in nonprofit reorganization and scaling fast growth organizations. Prior to Jackson Fields Consulting, Elizabeth served as the Chief Operating Officer at the Gary Sinise Foundation from 2018-2021. Under her leadership, the Gary Sinise Foundation experienced record-breaking year-over-year growth in fundraising, provided meaningful programmatic spend to support our nation’s defenders, retained the coveted 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator every consecutive year under her leadership, and achieved a program expense ratio that never dipped below 88%.

Elizabeth has previously served in various executive roles at leading nonprofits and academic institutions, including National Public Radio (NPR), the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, and Michigan State University.

Kris Schweitzer - Volunteer Coordinator

Kris Schweitzer was born in Maryland and raised in Louisiana. In 1995, he joined the U.S. Air Force and spent the next 21+ years serving around the world with some of the finest individuals America has to offer. Kris received many decorations during his time in the Air Force and retired as a senior non-commissioned officer. He met his wife, LeAnn, at the very beginning of his military career and they have been happily married ever since.

Brittany Waites-Harrington - Brand Ambassador

Brittany Waites is a recent graduate from Texas Woman’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Health studies. I’m a proud Army Veteran with a passion to serve.

My military experience in human resources has given me the skills in leadership and people management necessary for success within any public or private organization. I’m an experienced leader, volunteer, and peer support specialist, with a history of working in the non-profit sector.

Throughout my undergraduate career, I have immersed myself in community outreach working with organizations such as The United Way, The Mission Continues, Wounded Warrior Project, Veterans Produce and KaBOOM through community engagement. Interacting with people in various communities and helping my fellow veterans is my passion.

Jeremy Choi - Board of Directors

Ever since a little boy, Jeremy was fascinated by the military ending a 22 year career in the US Marine Corps. Some of his most meaningful deployments and tours required implementing projects helping indigenous farmers in Afghanistan and Africa improve farming techniques and sustainable livelihoods. This same interest moved to veterans causes and helping them develop and grow wholesome foods through sustainable practices.

Maggi Molina - Director Of Advocacy and Operations

Maggi Molina joined Veterans Produce in September 2022 as an Apprentice at our Keller Community Garden location. Since then she has learned all major aspects of operation for our aquaponics greenhouse and hydroponics systems, and has excelled in advancing her skills in the advanced aspects of operational management. Maggi has been appointed (promoted) as the Keller Greenhouse Supervisor and continues to perform the day-to-day duties of the greenhouse to also include, managing the volunteer base, and editing and testing written procedures.

"The Chief" is proud to Announce The Promotion of Maggi Molina to Director, Advocacy and Operations. In this role Maggi will be involved with all aspects of organization management. Maggi is tasked with helping make sure our organization runs properly, is efficient, and is able to complete our mission. I am so pleased to have Maggi on our team and know she will make a long lasting benefit to Veterans Produce!

Maggi served four years in the Air Force as a radar technician and deployed to Kuwait to establish a radar site to monitor the no-fly zone over Iraq. She has worked since 2015 to get veterans into tech by expanding VA funding options to short-term technology training programs. Maggi has been looking to transition into farming since 2020 and worked on "dirt farms" in Virginia and Maine.