In January, the Committee welcomed LC Industries, Inc. (LCI) of Durham, North Carolina to its monthly meeting. LCI is the largest JWOD Supply Center operator in the JWOD Program with 20 retail locations throughout the country. LCI's Supply Centers currently employ 20 people who are blind.

LCI opened the first JWOD Base Supply Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1995. Plans for this project began in 1993, when Fort Bragg decided to close its own Self Service Supply Center—a decision that would make it less convenient for Fort Bragg personnel to obtain JWOD products, and possibly lower the number of JWOD jobs for people who are blind or have other severe disabilities. In 1995, LCI signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Fort Bragg for a six-month Base Supply Center pilot program. In just two months, the Supply Center was so successful that LCI was approved to continue operating the Base Supply Center indefinitely.

The purpose of the Supply Center program is to provide office supplies and other needed products to military personnel in a convenient location with maximum emphasis on customer service. The Supply Centers not only provide retail employment opportunities for JWOD employees, but also stock a wide variety of products manufactured by people who are blind or have other severe disabilities in JWOD-participating nonprofit agencies across the country, and in turn, help secure stable, quality work opportunities for those employees.

In addition to Fort Bragg, LCI currently operates Base Supply Centers at Fort Jackson, SC; Fort Stewart, GA; Fort Drum, NY; Naval Station Mayport, FL; NAS Jacksonville, FL; Naval Station Pascaqoula, MS; NAS Whiting Field, FL; Naval Weapons Station Charleston, SC; NAS Pensacola, FL; Pope AFB (2 locations), NC; Shaw AFB, SC; Nellis AFB, NV; Hurlburt Feild (2 locations), FL; USP&FO Jackson, MS; Camp Shelby,MS; MCAS Beaufort, SC; and Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA. Plans to open a Base Supply Center at the Navy's Trident Refit Facility, Kings Bay, GA are currently underway.

For more information about JWOD Supply Centers, please visit the JWOD Supply Center Initiative page of this website.