Hey, y’all. First, a health update: My PT and workouts are going great, and I’m eager to play again soon. Thank you all again for your ongoing words of support while I get stronger.

Now, back to mental health! As we settle in to play the Rams here in L.A., I’ve been thinking a lot about … food. More specifically, a really humble guy who likes to say he’s just “a guy who makes eggs” — when actually he’s a world-famous Food Network chef, author, humanitarian, and paragon of hard work, grit, and adaptability — three traits I believe are key to mental health.

That guy is Robert Irvine.

You may know him from Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible. Or maybe you know his line of food. Both are great. But even more than that, I admire Robert for his Robert Irvine Foundation, which is all about addressing the wellness — physical and mental — of veterans, first responders, and their families.

Robert’s support of the military is personal: Born in the UK, he joined Her Majesty’s Royal Navy at a young age. Ten years later, when he completed his service, he moved to the U.S., where he began working on cruise ships and at hotels and casinos (including in A.C. — which is how he became a big Birds fan).

What Robert quickly realized was that food, like sports, brings people together. With that recognition and his support of the military, he began lending his cooking talents to organizations that helped our troops in the U.S. and abroad — he’d show up at events and cook for anywhere from hundreds to thousands of military men and women! And in 2014, he decided to launch his own Foundation to fill even more gaps.

Now, his Foundation offers a suite of wellness programs. “I went into the mental and physical health space, number one, because I love to work out, and, number two, because nobody was touching that area at that time,” he says. The organization has gone from being a “pass-through entity,” meaning they raised money and gave it to other charities, to founding their own programs.

There’s Breaking Bread with Heroes, which brings together military and first responders around the world over food to share food, joy, and camaraderie. Robert just came back from Romania for Thanksgiving, and has also recently been to Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. “Anywhere we have troops — domestic and foreign, warships, submarines, you name it — we feed people,” he says. Since 2022 alone, the Foundation has served meals to more than 92,000 heroes and their families.

There’s also Reuniting the Brave, which brings folks together after their service to find support and socialize with others who get it, no explanations needed. More than 6,470 veterans, Gold Star Families, surviving family members, and military families have participated in Reuniting the Brave to-date. The program most recently brought together 750 marines, rescue swimmers, and snipers in San Diego.

“I get up every morning knowing that we can do something for someone less fortunate. The food is just the vehicle that gets me there.” — Robert Irvine

They do these amazing marches — 22, 36 or 54 miles, participant’s choice — in the Highlands of Scotland. They run a mobility device program, providing state-of-the-art equipment designed by Dean Kamen, the guy who created the Segway, that allows people with disabilities to more easily navigate stairs, go over rough ground, enjoy the beach (they’ve given away 27 mobility devices).

But wait, there’s more! They have a bike program for double amputees that provides them with a vehicle that can go up to 20 miles per hour. They have a food truck program, Let’s Chow, that trains vets who want to get into the culinary arts — the Foundation also recently gave away a food truck in Philly. They’re working on rolling out even more entrepreneurial programs, to help veterans establish their sense of purpose, ownership, and pride.

And perhaps my favorite of all, given how much I love dogs, the Robert Irvine Foundation supports a service dog program. They partner with a nonprofit in North Carolina called Paws for People, which rigorously trains service dogs to be placed with people who need them. (Paws for People is even run by an Air Force veteran and his daughter.) Since 2019, they’ve matched 15 heroes with life-changing service dogs.

It may seem like they’re doing a bunch of amazing, but unrelated, things — but what actually strikes me as so meaningful about the Foundation’s work is that it does all come back to the same thing: hope.

Robert says that hope is the most important thing he strives to provide in all the work he does — along with dignity and respect. “When you leave a service — fire service, peace service, military service, no matter the branch — you lose a sense of who you are. Because you’ve been part of this big organization and then all of a sudden you’re stuck and you’re trying to figure out who you are, what you are, and where you want to go.”

And that’s where the demons creep in — that’s where the mental battles can start or worsen. So all of Robert’s programs are intentional about giving people hope, purpose, camaraderie, and support.

This guy’s gotten so much recognition for his work: Veterans of Foreign Wars Distinguished Citizenship Award, Association of the United States Army National Service Award, U.S. Department of the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Award, United States Navy Honorary Chief Petty Officer, Medal of Honor Society’s Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment … the list goes on. But he doesn’t do it for the accolades.

“What cooking has allowed me to do is serve my real passion, which is the military and first responders,” he says. “I get up every morning knowing that we can do something for someone less fortunate. The food is just the vehicle that gets me there.”

He knows that life isn’t always fair, and it certainly isn’t always easy, and he doesn’t try to sugarcoat that for anyone. “Life throws you lemons, and you gotta figure it out. It’s not always lemonade. Sometimes it’s bitter rind!” he says. “We’re born equal, but we’re not created equal. So any time I can give a hand up, not a hand out, I’m about it.”

MORE FROM LANE JOHNSON