USAA and Robert Irvine Foundation Launch Fuel to Serve to Strengthen Military Family Well-Being and Readiness

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 23, 2026--

Food plays a powerful role in military family life — supporting health, bringing people together and representing a significant part of the household budget. Today, USAA and the Robert Irvine Foundation announced Fuel to Serve, a new five-year partnership that will use food as an everyday entry point to strengthen military family well-being and readiness. The initiative is part of Honor Through Action, a national advocacy movement founded by USAA to drive meaningful, measurable change on the issues that matter most to the military community.

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Fuel to Serve will go "beyond the dining hall," using food and shared meals as trusted entry points to link families with a broader network of resources. The initiative will explore ways to guide military families toward financial education and resources, cooking and nutrition education, mental health services, benefits navigation and community-based support — meeting families where they already are through commissaries, dining facilities and other familiar food settings.

Beginning with pilots at Fort Bragg and in the Washington, D.C., region, Fuel to Serve will expand the Robert Irvine Foundation's food, wellness and community programs to connect military families with broader resources.

"Food is part of every military family's daily life, but its importance extends far beyond the meal itself," said Juan C. Andrade, President and CEO of USAA. "Through Fuel to Serve, we're bringing together trusted partners and practical resources to address the interconnected challenges military families face. By starting with places and experiences families already know, this initiative aims to help support their health, resilience and readiness."

“Some of the most important conversations happen around a table,” said Robert Irvine, Founder and Chairman of the Robert Irvine Foundation. “Food is the front door. It brings people together, builds trust and gives us a way to connect families to nutrition, wellness and community support that lasts. This work runs from the dining facility to the home, from the installation to the surrounding community.”

Through these pilots, USAA and the Robert Irvine Foundation will stand up and prove the model, track measurable outcomes, and lay the groundwork to scale services across military communities nationwide. The two organizations will use pilot learnings to convene military leaders, nonprofits, private-sector partners and community organizations around solutions that can strengthen military family well-being and readiness at greater scale.

Military readiness is shaped by the everyday conditions that support health, resilience and family stability. Nutrition, financial well-being, social connection and access to trusted support all influence a family's ability to thrive through the demands of military life. Food sits at the center of many of these daily experiences, making it a practical and familiar starting point for engagement.

Military families often navigate competing pressures related to household finances, nutrition, mental wellness and accessing available support. Rising costs can force difficult tradeoffs among food, housing, transportation, childcare and other essentials, while services and resources are often spread across multiple organizations and systems. Fuel to Serve aims to address these overlapping pressures directly.

Fuel to Serve extends USAA's collaboration with the Robert Irvine Foundation through Face the Fight, recognizing that food and shared meals can create meaningful opportunities to foster connection, reduce isolation and link military families with support and resources.

About USAA

Founded in 1922 by 25 soldiers, USAA is among the leading providers of insurance, banking and retirement solutions and serves more than 14.5 million members of the U.S. military, veterans who have honorably served and their families. Headquartered in San Antonio, USAA has offices in seven U.S. cities and four overseas locations and employs more than 36,000 people worldwide. Each year, USAA supports national and local nonprofits serving military families and communities. With Honor Through Action, USAA advances policy, advocacy and philanthropy to support financial security, build meaningful careers and promote overall well-being across the military community. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or X (@usaa), or visit usaa.com.

About the Robert Irvine Foundation

The Robert Irvine Foundation strengthens the physical and mental well-being of service members, veterans, first responders and their families. Through its three pillars of Food, Wellness and Community, the Foundation provides programs and experiences that nourish, strengthen and connect those who serve, helping them build the readiness and resilience to thrive in their personal and professional lives. Established by Chef and entrepreneur Robert Irvine in 2014, the Foundation has reached more than one million heroes, family members and civilians. Learn more at robertirvinefoundation.org.

USAA and Robert Irvine Foundation Launch Fuel to Serve to Strengthen Military Family Well-Being and Readiness

Chef Robert Irvine (center), founder of the Robert Irvine Foundation, joins U.S. military service members. Through the Foundation's new "Fuel to Serve" partnership with USAA, Irvine is working to use food and shared meals as entry points to strengthen military family well-being and readiness.

A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote.

U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in Oakland found the government's effort is relying on data that is full of errors and that it's leading to intimidation of groups performing voter assistance efforts. She said it should be halted until polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3.

She put her ruling, which was made Wednesday, on hold until Friday to give the administration a chance to appeal.

The ruling applies to investigations in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

It comes as the Trump administration has been hunting for noncitizen voters throughout the country in the months leading into the midterm elections. The administration has signaled that it's a major problem, when in fact it's quite rare, as even its own investigations have shown.

The lawsuit was filed by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, along with the Voto Latino Foundation, San Francisco and Santa Clara County.

In response to the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security issued an email statement Thursday saying it's focused on “removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens,” while adding, “We have no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be U.S. citizens.”

The judge based the decision to halt the investigation only on the unions’ assertion that the probe is harming voter assistance and mobilization efforts involving citizens. She did not find that union members' right to vote was being infringed because most of them do that by mail and not in person. She said investigations don’t need to target U.S. citizens, use armed agents or intimidate citizens who are urging others to vote.

According to legal filings in the case, investigators were told to target naturalized citizens to see whether they had voted before they became U.S. citizens. The lists of voters to check came from sources that included state and local governments and publicly available information. Martinez-Olguin called them “voluminous and unreliable.”

“Even under the best conditions, there is a high likelihood of error in review because there is no federal database containing citizenship status of U.S. residents,” Martinez-Olguin wrote in her ruling. “The time limitations implemented during the Surge further exacerbate the risk of error.”

The Department of Justice has been demanding detailed and unredacted voter roll data from the states and has sued the 30 states that have refused to turn it over, losing each of those cases so far. The judge noted that for states that refused to share their records, the administration was trying to obtain them through “unreliable commercial versions of voter roll data.”

She said during a “surge” phase of the investigation starting in late August, agents were ordered to complete reviews of flagged individuals taking no more than 12 minutes per person to assess whether they were legally qualified to vote.

In their challenge, the plaintiffs said some U.S. citizens felt they were wrongly identified and investigated as part of the probe. Martinez-Olguin said those fears “are well understood as intimidation” that has chilled people from attending campaign events and working as poll monitors during the election.

Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer representing the unions and voter group, said in a statement that the ruling affirms the groups’ position.

"It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election," Tremitiere said.

Details of the investigation, known as the "Unlawful Voter Initiative,” came to light last month after Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California released a whistleblower report about it.

Homeland Security Investigations task force officers escort a suspect accused of illegally registering to vote during a federal operation in Commerce, Calif., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)