Starting a Non Profit, Friends in Service of Heroes with Founder Paul Chapa

Paul Chapa is the founder of Friends in Service of Heroes (FISH), a non-profit organization that aims to help veterans and their families improve their quality of life and get the freedom that they deserve. Paul serves the nation’s heroes and their families by providing track chairs, service dogs, and a lot more.

“We don’t want to put a band-aid on the problem here. We don’t want to just feed the man fish, we want to teach them to fish.” – Paul Chapa

Paul Chapa – The Food Guy

Paul never served in the military, much less have any experience as a boy scout, but he has friends and family who did. Amidst the horrors of 2001, he spent days thinking about his family and friends serving in the military, of what they must go through with the nation under attack. With news of a distant family member’s demise following the devastation at the Pentagon, he knew something had to be done.

“I decided that there’s gotta be something I can do and here I am, I’m in the food industry. What I know of our troops is, man, they all love to eat.” – Paul Chapa

He figured right then and there that he wanted to show the troops how much they’re appreciated by basically feeding them. It’s a simplistic mission, which eventually morphed into something else.

Feeding the Marines

Everything began changing when he was invited to his first Marine Corps ball. He chatted up the general he was sharing a table with, pitching a “Heroes Dinner” with the Marines and their spouses. While the general was reluctant to indulge in revelry given the current national situation, Paul was adamant about his wishes to give thanks to the troops.

A couple of dinners later, FISH was born.

Teaching Troops to Fish

After one of the many dinners Paul and other food industry executives hosted, he learned of another loss to the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. This came into light while he and a general shared cigar in the aftermath of the affair. It was the night when he first heard the words that lit up the desire to do more to help people remember the unsung heroes, with or without the uniform.

The ideals of FISH were born that evening, well into the first few hours of the morning. Formerly Food Industry Serving Heroes, FISH is now the non-profit organization with a goal to not only better the lives of troops and their families, but help them in so much more.

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Check out these links for Paul Chapa:

• Friends in Service of Heroes
• LinkedIn

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