How to Send Cookies to the US Military
Sending cookies and other treats to military family members makes them feel loved and missed. Most people in the military look forward to little care packages from mothers and fathers, sisters or brothers, wives or husbands, and other loved ones. Sending baked goods to military facilities isn't hard to do, but you must follow military and postal service regulations for items sent to military personnel.
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Instructions
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Bake your cookies, using recipes for cookies that won't go bad quickly and that heat or cold won't bother. If you want chocolate in the cookies, add M & M's or candy-coated chocolate to a recipe rather than chocolate chips--the chips will melt and fuse all of the cookies in the bag together. Let the cookies cool for several hours before bagging. Give them plenty of time for them to dry out a little bit because excess moisture causes mold formation on food.
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Package four or five cookies per bag and layer them in the box. You can get free boxes from the post office for your cookies. Put a layer of Styrofoam packing peanuts around the cookies so they won't move while being shipped.
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Fold the lid closed on the box and tape it securely. Label the box "Fragile and perishable."
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Label and address the package. If you are sending the cookies to a specific person, put that person's name and address on the package, bring the package to the post office and mail it.
If you want to send cookies to anyone in the troop, go to AnySoldier.com, and choose a soldier. Click on his or her name. An address comes up, and under the soldier's name on the address, are the words "Any Soldier." Write out the whole address, and draw a line through the words "Any Soldier," so it doesn't confuse the post office. The soldier it is sent to sees the "Any Soldier" and will pass on the cookies to a soldier in the unit who gets little or no mail.
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Tips & Warnings
Sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, gingerbread and pecan sandies are good cookies for sending to the military. They stay good for at least a week without molding or getting dried out.
If you're mailing for the holidays, mail early.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit plate of italian amaretti cookies on a blue placemat image by David Smith from Fotolia.com
