From Meals On Wheels To VFW, He's Fed Countless Folks For Decades

GUILFORD, CT — When Larry Santamaria returned to his hometown from Vietnam in 1971, it was the Guilford Veterans of Foreign Wars post that helped him find his way.

“When we came back from Vietnam, we all had our problems. We all had PTSD,” he told Patch. “That’s how I dealt with that; helping other veterans. That’s how I made my way through life.”

As a United States Marine, Santamaria spent almost three years in Vietnam, was wounded (and ordered right back to his unit after a short hospital stay) and received the Purple Heart.

“I’m fortunate there was a VFW here when I came home, and lots of veterans,” he said. “I never realized how important that was until I was much older.”

Santamaria has served as Edward A. Norton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #7666 commander for four decades. From being an important part of creating Guilford’s inaugural Memorial Day Parade in 1979 to serving his community until today, he said that the VFW is his “life’s work, “my call.”

Santamaria has been feeding the people of Guilford for almost half a century

Santamaria grew up in his grandparents’ “mom-and-pop” market on Whitfield Street. He said he’d always wanted to “go into the food business” since it was “in my blood.” Now around age 23, while taking a job as a surveyor, Santamaria cook for the VFW and countless fundraisers, which soon grew into a catering business and then, in around 1989, he opened up The Little Store in North Guilford — while catering and doing VFW and other fundraisers and community and private events. Before long, he started a concession business he took to fairs and festivals, parties and other events.

In 1999, he catered a town event, and soon after, already having left the surveying job, began working for the town as the Parks and Recreation kitchen supervisor — Santamaria is the town chef — and also started cooking for Meals on Wheels.

“It was a good job, especially working with seniors,” he said. “I knew the town and knew a lot of seniors and World War II veterans and wives and it was a great job to have. To help.”

Now led by Guilford Interfaith Volunteers, the director of Meals-on-Wheels, Christi Burton, said what Santamaria has done for the community in his decades of service is unparalleled, as is his cooking, like his “famous roast pork dinner.”

“Larry is the wonderful chef who cooks all the meals for Meals on Wheels and for the seniors as well as anyone else who needs it,” Burton said. “We are so lucky to have him.”

‘We need to keep this place going’

Santamaria has his day job cooking for the town, and his nights and weekends are spent at the VFW, which he says is struggling to pay the bills. And the pandemic has made it that much harder.

“I’m doing dinners on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday breakfast to get money to keep this place going,” he said. There’s usually a fair turnout for the socially-distant meals, and there’s take-out, but it’s not the same as before the pandemic.

“We’re just trying to survive down here. We still have to pay gas and electric; the utilities are high. We have a canteen, but there’s none of that now so I’m just doing dinners for the money. A lot of VFW posts are hurting. Money dries up. It’s been pretty sad.”

Every Friday and Saturday night, from 5 to 8 p.m., for $12 indoor, sit-down socially-distanced diners enjoy "Larry's Famous Pot Roast," chicken Parmesan or shrimp scampi. "Big" Sunday breakfast runs $8.

And Santamaria is the man doing all the cooking. He's always there to feed people. It’s a labor of love for Santamaria, one he’s been at for decades. Still, he does not complain. But he does worry.

“The VFW is important. We need it to survive,” he said.

Besides making sure to stop for a take-out dinner, there are a number of ways to support the VFW. Visit its website here.

And we hear he just celebrated a birthday, so happy belated birthday, Larry.