Support our Military! We need items to send in the care packages. If you, your company or organization would like to donate items to support the troops, please use this list as a reference for the types of items to collect for the Care Package Project™. All items must be new and in the original sealed packaging (except recreation items as noted below). Homemade food items cannot be accepted.
NOTE: Food items shipped with toiletry items will taste like deodorant, foot powder, toothpaste, etc. To avoid this, please deliver all food items packaged separately from all toiletry items or separate them in plastic bags.
UPDATED May 9, 2013: Please consider donating from the "most requested" items list here. Travel-size and single-serving size work best.
(see below for specifics on these most requested items)
Chicken or tuna lunch kits (includes foil pouch of tuna, crackers, and condiments in each single-serving kit)
Cookies
Fruit: single serving size cans
Gum, Lifesavers®, mints (blister pack gum is best because of the intense heat)
Hard candy (single-wrapped)
Jalepeno Velveeta® and crackers
Nuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, trail mix, dried fruit
Pop Tarts®, cereal bars, granola bars
Popcorn
Power bars, protein bars, nutritional bars
Ramen noodles
Ravioli and other canned ready-to-eat meals (single serving) with pop-top
Seasoning salts, flavoring salts
Single-serving bags of snacks, crackers
Taco Bell® sauce packets
Do not send glass containers. Pork and pork by-products are not allowed to be shipped to most Middle East combat locations. Please send non-perishable foods only. Single-serving package sizes are preferred; large packages won't stay fresh and are harder to ship. If you can stuff it in your pocket and it's not going to spoil or melt during the summer season, it's a good thing to send!
Crystal Light® (or other brand) "On The Go" flavor packets
Sugar and creamer packets for coffee (No artificial sweetener)
Send small containers please. We cannot ship liquids. However, the troops do need flavors to add to the drinking water provided to them. Please send pre-sweetened or sugar-free flavoring mixes in small or single-serving packages. During the colder months, hot beverages are in great demand. Please do not send glass jars.
Color of underclothing and socks is not as important as making sure they are 100% cotton. Send fingerless gloves and stocking caps during winter months only. (September-February)
Envelopes
Pens and unsharpened pencils
Small, blank journals
Small pads of paper
Small pocket notebooks (no large spiral notebooks)
Lip balm (Blistex®, Chapstick®, Carmex®) in stick-tubes rather than tubs, not tinted
Pain relievers (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Tylenol®, Midol®) in small containers
Saline spray/drops for sensitive nasal passages
Sunblock (travel size or stick preferable, no aerosol SPF 30+)
Throat lozenges
Travel size packages of Q-tips
Lip balm is in high demand in desert areas. The lipstick-style tubes that you apply directly to your lips are preferred over the "tub" style. Eyedrops are to relieve dry eyes; please avoid sending eyedrops designed to remove redness as those will increase dryness and iritation caused by sand and storms in a desert climate.
Baby wipes for personal hygiene (alcohol-free)
Disposable hand sanitizing wipes
Liquid hand sanitizers (no pump-style dispensers)
Women's feminine wipes
Please do not send pump dispenser style bottles for any items. When the troops are out in the field, facilities for showering and taking care of personal hygiene are infrequent and in many locations non-existent. Portable-sized packages of non-alcohol based baby wipes are also in high demand for these troops.
Toiletries are not in as high a demand as they once were; however, we do have units at forward operating bases that still need the toiletries listed below:
Dental Floss
Disposable multi-blade razors (no single-blade razors please)
Kleenex (travel-size packets)
Liquid bodywash soap, liquid anti-bacterial soap (no bar soap or pump-style dispensers)
Lotion, unscented, for dry skin (no pump-style dispensers)
Men's and women's deodorant
Nail clippers
Oral B Brush-Ups™
Razors and replacement blades
Shampoo
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste (in hard-side tubes rather than traditional tubes)
Please purchase small or travel-size items for personal care. We try to send a new toothbrush and razors in every package, so the demand is very high for these items. Toothpaste tubes get messy; the plastic "bottles" of toothpaste stand up better to the conditions of combat zones. The new "Brush-Ups®" are very popular and useful for the troops.
WE CANNOT SEND THESE ITEMS:
Used food or hygiene items
Aerosol cans
Anything glass
Bars of soap
Chocolate during summer months (March-October)
Clothing items of color other black, white, and olive green