With the arrival of the holiday season, it’s only natural to want to share the joy with loved ones or neighbors serving in the military. To ensure gifts and treats make it safely to their destination, Elizabeth Andress, a food safety specialist with UGA’s Cooperative Extension, recommends:
• Avoiding cookies with cream or custard fillings or moist cookies. They may mold in humid climates. Instead send heavy cakes, fudge, nut bars and cookies that are high in sugar and shortening.
• Sending other items that ship well like coffees, dried foods, nuts, teas and mixed cereal snacks.
To get the gift there in peak condition, Andress suggests:
• Placing foods and gifts in a clean box or metal tin and putting that box or tin inside a packing box.
• Placing packing materials like newspaper, foam pieces or bubble wrap around the first box.
• Taking into account the military and each country’s customs regulations. Size and weight may be an issue, too.
If baking and shipping sounds precarious, check with local Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. Both offer options for buying cookies and popcorn that they will ship to troops for you.
Mail delivery to troops overseas is often spotty. The shipping deadline for a mid-December arrival is late November to early December. Check with the local U.S. Postal Service or other shipping companies for exact deadlines.