Free Supply Store
Shop free, with dignity
Set up like a real store, minus the price tags. Veterans and immediate family shop once a month for clothing, hygiene, blankets, boots, and coats. Proof of veteran status required.
Every Third Saturday walks alongside veterans and their families as they rediscover purpose, rebuild brotherhood, and pursue post-traumatic growth. Free, for life.
Founder Tom McKenna, a Marine Corps veteran, drove past a homeless vet at an Arden Hills intersection and turned around. He took the man to a store and bought him the simplest things he needed most — socks and underwear.
That turned into monthly loops around the city, ten backpacks at a time. Then a trailer full of clothing, boots, and hygiene supplies, handed out in the Minneapolis VA parking lot on the third Saturday of every month.
The gatherings became a movement. The movement became a 10,000-square-foot center two blocks from the VA. The name never changed.
Doctors repair the body. Psychologists tend the mind. ETS exists for the wounds to the soul — and the community that heals them.
From a free store stocked like a retail shop to a five-week course in post-traumatic growth, every program is built to restore dignity, not hand out charity.
Set up like a real store, minus the price tags. Veterans and immediate family shop once a month for clothing, hygiene, blankets, boots, and coats. Proof of veteran status required.
Weekly classes and peer groups inside the VREC — art, tech help, recovery, and more. No skill required, just a willingness to walk in the door.
A course for veterans pursuing post-traumatic growth — building character, keeping agreements, and becoming the best version of themselves.
A simple in-person and digital pathway that connects veterans and their families to the right resources and service providers — fast.
Open Monday–Friday, 10am–3pm. Cardio, rowing, a smith machine, free weights, and yoga mats — upstairs in the VREC, no membership.
A 6–12 month paid position with weekly life- and career-coaching. Interns fill a maintenance or barista role, 5–20 hours a week, building toward full-time work.
ETS runs on the generosity of people who believe no veteran should fight the return alone. Choose how you want to help.
Amos Ferrier, our Internship Director and a decorated Army medic who served two tours in Afghanistan, was a bright light to everyone he met. He was lost to us far too soon.
Amos leaves behind two sons, Liam and Elliot. We're raising funds for their education — and the future their father worked so hard to secure for them.
The mission doesn't end at discharge. Your gift puts boots on feet, hope in hands, and a community at every veteran's back.