Abstract:The Veteran Health Administration reports that the military-connected community is facing a food insecurity crisis. For many veterans, challenges in accessing food and food assistance resources are one contributing factor to the rise in veteran food insecurity rates. Due to this rise, there has been an increase in the number of studies and policies addressing food insecurity among US veteran populations due to potential significant social, cultural, and political implications. Building on prior conceptualization of access from the Theory of Access by Ribot and Peluso, I identify various mechanisms of access that veterans utilize to access food and food assistance programs and frame these mechanisms within complex bundles of power operating in webs of power. I then employ Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, field, doxa, habitus, and hysteresis to further investigate why some veterans are able to access food and food assistance resources better than others. In interviews with 26 Oklahoma veterans, with service eras spanning from Vietnam to Post-Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom campaigns, I find that veteran food access is not simply a matter of eligibility or ability to access food, but is profoundly shaped by a veteran’s sense of dignity, identity, and transition back to civilian life. Not only does this research expand Ribot and Peluso’s TOA to understand veteran food access, but it also integrates Bourdieu’s concepts to allow for a more dynamic understanding of how veterans’ dispositions and discord experienced by the military-to-civilian transition influence their ability or inability to engage with food assistance programs. Findings from this research underscore the importance of veteran identity, demonstrate that access is a process, and call for more responsive policies and culturally attuned approaches to veteran food access.