MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Even at a young age Grace Griffin knew she liked to help others less fortunate. “Kind of started when I was in the fourth grade,” she said. At the time, she started collecting toiletries her dad brought home after traveling. “We decided to start packaging the toiletries he had and passing them out to the homeless. It kind of grew from there when I started asking my middle school for donations.” The generosity continued for the 17-year-old senior at Academic Magnet High School as part of the Hot Dog Ministry through East Cooper Baptist Church. Griffin said they go and feed the homeless a hot meal once a week. “As I began serving down there, I kind of saw everyone who benefitted from it, and honestly, the joy on people’s faces from just receiving one hot meal,” she said. “I just felt like I knew I could make a difference.” And what a difference Griffin has made. She started her own foundation, Homeless Hope, a nonprofit focused on helping homeless veterans. “I have worked with the homeless in the past through the Hot Dog Ministry, we usually had a couple of veterans come through here and there. Just seeing the situation that they are in now after having served our country—we knew we wanted to set them up as best as possible.” So, to help – to do more – Griffin came up with “Sweets for Veterans” where she teams up with several local Chick-fil-A restaurants who will donate $1 from every purchase of a chocolate chunk cookie this week (Nov. 11-16) to help combat veteran homelessness. “We’ll then donate to Tunnel for Towers and hopefully directly to their new veteran village they are building in North Charleston,” she added. You may recall the groundbreaking from last month. The Tunnel to Towers Veterans Village is a permanent housing facility off Ashley Phosphate Road, which hopes to open in the next year, and its goal is to eradicate veteran homelessness. Local Chick-fil-A owners were more than happy to help Griffin and called her plan a great idea. “Chick-fil-A is built on care. That is our whole idea to be the world’s most caring company, and to see what she’s doing to care for her community, it marries beautifully with Chick-fil-A’s values as far as what we’re trying to do in the community,” said Joe Hawkins. And Griffin’s vision is not shortsighted – she is making it her lifelong mission to help others. “I’m really interested in going forward and being able to put myself in a position where I can make an even bigger difference and hopefully try to end homelessness as we know it. We just want to get everyone off the streets and into safe homes where they can sleep at night and have a hot meal in the morning,” she said. “It’s a pretty big goal but I have a lifetime ahead of me to work on it.” You can still help: the deal at Chick-fil-A runs through November 16 at two of the chicken chain’s restaurants in West Ashley – Citadel Mall and Savannah Highway – and the North Mount Pleasant location in the Oakland Market.