So of course, like sooooooo many other people, I looked to Pinterest when my husband was deployed for cute care package ideas.
A lot of the ideas I found for decorating the inside of the boxes were so over the top and they were super nice, but Derrick and I are very minimal and he doesn’t really care about all that.
I was home in Arkansas with our son (7-12 months old) while Derrick was in Africa, so I printed out the shapes for Arkansas and Africa and put them on two of the tabs on the inside of the box. I also found a little saying to put on another tab. The saying was “Distance is just a test to see how far love can travel.” I thought that was super cute and as he reads over this post before I hit publish, agreed. 🙂
You can include cute notes/love letters, appropriate pictures, small games, books, etc…Whatever you think they’d like or requested.
My husband was sooooo excited to get every box because he was NOT enjoying the food they supplied.
I tried to pack each box as full as I could. As soon as I dropped off one box to the post office he was telling me what he wanted in the next box. I was like, sheesh!
They do have a store there for them to shop at, but it can be more expensive with limited supplies, depending on where they are deployed to.
Trying to lug around heavy boxes, sometimes multiple, with a baby was such a task! His stroller basket wasn’t strong enough to hold the boxes, the handle where we push the stroller was unsafe because it could fall right on his head, and his tray didn’t work either… I was strugglin’!! I had to push the huge stroller with one hand and carry the box like waitress in the other.
One trip was just such chaos, lol… I literally could not get out the door. Having a crawling baby who is intrigued by EVERYTHING when you are trying to pack up the boxes is a task in itself…my son wanted to take everything out of the boxes, chew on everything, and climb on the boxes… it took a little longer, but he was having fun. I packed up the box all neat and forgot to tape the bottom of the box and it all fell through. Right before I walked out the door to go to the post office, my son had a diaper blowout… I took a picture, but I guess I will spare you that image, and then while walking to the car, the trash bag I had the two boxes in ripped…COME ONNNNNNNNNN! I finally managed to drop of the packages, but wooooooo!
Food Ideas
• Quaker Chewy bars
• Granola bars / Protein bars
• Loose granola
• Dried fruits
• Trail Mix – Pre-mixed or buy ingredients separately
• Crackers – Club, Townhouse, Ritz, peanut butter, cheese, Wheat Thins, etc…
• Cheez-It’s – other types of pre-bagged goodies
• Graham crackers
• Salsa – make sure you wrap it up good. I bought some bubble wrap from Dollar Tree and also put it inside a freezer bag as added insurance. Derrick said having the salsa was A1 (good), and on the days that the caf didn’t have what he wanted, he would eat chips and salsa.
• Chips
• Cookies – I bought a box of oatmeal raisin cookies from Sams Clubs bakery, wrapped them up in saran wrap, and put it in a Tupperware container. I literally smushed the whole box into a smaller container. It was like 1 huge cookie brick when he got it, but that didn’t stop him from eating them, lol. He said he ate that pretty quickly because of rodents…he didn’t want to take any chances.
• Cookies – Oreos, chocolate chip, etc… They can be pre-packaged or homemade.
• Meat sticks – Slim Jims, etc… He said the Slim Jims were the best mid day snack, especially being able to fit them in his pocket while away from the camp.
• Candy – be mindful of temperatures, but I sent a few of the party sized bags of peanut M&M’s (the star of his day, besides talking to me)
• Popcorn – he said the popcorn came in handy towards the end of the deployment because he started running out of snacks, but he didn’t want me to send any more packages.
• Breakfast food packets – oatmeal, grits, cream of wheat
• Gum
•Drink powders
• Condiments – hot sauce
Extras
• Pictures (No nudity)
• Toiletries – Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, razors, q-tips, etc…
• Baby wipes / disinfectant wipes – he said it got pretty gross over there. It was super dusty over there so he would wipe up his things with these.
• Shower shoes – especially if they forgot them
•Ziploc sandwich bags – for sharing food, taking food out of the caf, and rationing food from packages
•Aluminum foil pre-cut sheets – they can use the grills and because so many people use it, it can get pretty messy, so he just liked to place his sandwich on top of the foil before cooking.
• Playing cards – Small games
• Disposable camera
• Chapstick – their lips can get pretty crusty, lol
• Eye drops
• Feminine care products
• Stationary – if they can’t purchase there
• Headphones, charger, phone accessories…
• Bag clips
If he were ever to deploy again…things he would take: duffel bag only for snacks; Slim Jims, Cheez-It’s, a lot of salsa, trail mix, and nacho cheese Doritos. Ask people to send care packages with hot Cheetos, popcorn, and M&M’s.
Shipping
Tip: You never know what can or will happen during shipment, so add an index card with your return address and the recipients address INSIDE the box.
The post office offers military flat rate shipping boxes, which you can order online – HERE. They come in a pack of 10 or 25 and are free. To ship, they are like $2 cheaper to send , which isn’t much, but it adds up if you send a lot of care packages. I didn’t need all 10, so i took the extras to the base.
Make sure you put a return address on the box.
You do have to fill out an APO / customs form for them to tape to the box. It asks what’s in the box, but you don’t have to list every single thing. You can put “snacks” and estimate a quantity.
There are things that are prohibited from sending in the mail, and your post office should give you a sheet of paper with the basic list.
This is just a few ideas for what you can put in your military care packages, but this list can definitely be used to send college students or even just an “I’m thinking of you” care package to a friend.
