Dog Tag Bakery marks 10 years of veteran entrepreneurial program

Dog Tag Bakery, a non-profit organization in Washington DC, is more than just a place for coffee. It also serves as an entrepreneurship program for veterans with service-connected disabilities. Describing itself as a “living business school,” Dog Tag Bakery is designed to support veterans dealing with both visible and invisible injuries.

The organization’s mission is to help veterans transition back to civilian life after military service. The five-month fellowship program gives veterans, spouses and caregivers the chance to take courses in business, storytelling, mindfulness and more. Scholars receive a stipend and must attend four days a week.

Healing through agriculture

Peter Scott, a former Army counterintelligence agent who served in Afghanistan, is one of the many veterans whose lives have been changed by Dog Tag.

Scott joined the Army in 1999. He was stationed in Germany and later deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as a counterintelligence agent attached to Special Forces teams. Shortly after he returned, he began having traumatic flashbacks and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It caught up with me,” he told “CBS Mornings.” “It wasn’t until after we had our baby that I started having some flashbacks.”

To cope with these symptoms and adjust to life outside the military, he went to an inpatient program and began to find relief in farming.

“I took up beekeeping. I took up gardening, whatever could keep me going at the moment,” he said.

In 2016, he founded Fields 4 Valor Farms, a nonprofit that grows produce for low-income veterans. The plot of land in Brandywine, Maryland, is an idyllic setting, but a far cry from the battlefields for which Scott trained. Scott said the Dog Tag program helped him turn his passion into a successful non-profit

“Fields 4 Valor Farms was born out of the program,” Scott said.

Business school for veterans

Dog Tag CEO Meghan Ogilvie took over the leadership role in 2015 following the death of the program’s beloved co-founder, Father Rick Curry, a Jesuit priest. Curry spent years developing the concept that would eventually become Dog Tag Inc. with the support of co-founder Constance “Connie” Milstein. CBS News interviewed Father Curry in 2015 not long after Dog Tag opened its doors.

“Just being able to be a part of it is — it’s a gift. And, you know, not everyone has the opportunity to really find their calling. Every day I show up, I feel it. And how lucky am I?, said Ogilvie.

Ogilvie currently oversees the program, which has helped veterans turn their military skills into valuable business and life skills.

“It’s black and white in the military,” she said. “I tell you where to live. They tell you when to move, they tell you what to wear, how to wear it. And that’s why it’s so effective. Not? And then you move and now you’re wearing a blazer and you know, you’re at a job fair and that identity is gone.”

Finding community and purpose

For veterans like Nnana “Obi” Obioha, who served in Iraq, Dog Tag provided a sense of community and helped him reconnect with others who understood his experiences. He was one of hundreds of Dog Tag Fellows who attended the program’s business and storytelling classes, but said the program’s mindfulness training and the bonds he formed with other participants helped him the most .

“Every veteran I met in my cohort had different stories, different backgrounds, different jobs,” he said. “But I was the same through work. Having that shoulder to lean on was very beneficial to pick up my pieces.”

Dog Tag’s impact extends beyond veterans.

Ximena Rozo participated in the program as an Army spouse. She credits Dog Tag with helping her launch an award-winning design business. The courses he took at Dog Tag, in partnership with Georgetown University, provided the foundation he needed to turn his ideas into a concrete business plan.

“It’s like all the dots connected here,” Rozo said.

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