Care Package posted by: mathematician1 on December 25, 2014 at 8:58 am

I am preparing a care package for my son in Afghanistan. It takes about 3 1/2 weeks to arrive. The recipes for many cookies and bars say to use within a shorter amount of time, though I've been baking them anyway and wrapping them airtight two-at-a-time and placing within an outer airtight bag with a slice of fresh bread enclosed. Could someone recommend baked goods which would stay fresh for a month? Any better way of wrapping them? Thank you for any advice!

reply by: swirth on December 25, 2014 at 9:36 am

Bless your son for his service to our great nation!



Here are several past threads regarding sending goodies to our troops overseas.
...scroll down a ways for the threads, click and read thru them for ideas others have used: (since we no longer have access to KAF, I deleted the link, but if anyone saved the thread “Afghanistan,” please post a link to it here)



One of our members here has a large family away and has had family in the military so she has shipped tons of packages of cookies thru the years. She used to bake 2000 cookies each Christmas. She wrapped two cookies, back to back, in glad wrap, etc., then placed the two packs into an oatmeal box then into an outer shipping box. She has always had great success in doing this for safe arrival. One of the threads I gave you had tips from a lady that shipped thousands of cookie packages to troops thru the years and she baked in the GladWare containers with lids, taped the lids shut and placed these into outer shipping boxes. She even baked cakes for birthdays of the troops and they arrived in great shape.


Shortbread would keep better than many types of cookies as would Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes as they are just flour, sugar, butter and nuts:

Many bakers here have used the USPS Priority Mail boxes to ship goodies to troops and they arrived much faster than what you speak of and there used to be a cheaper shipping price for the troops' packages at least at holiday times.

Hope this will help you!

reply by: Livingwell on December 25, 2014 at 11:28 am

Swirth has answered your question wonderfully, so I have nothing to add except to say thank you to your son for his service! We have been a military family for the past three generations, so know the sacrfices our service members and their families make every day.


reply by: mathematician1 on December 25, 2014 at 6:07 pm

Swirth and Livingwell, thank you for your blessings and your advice. I did not find the links when I searched for care package and Afghanistan, but I did not think to search for "overseas." The links are great and have so many amazing ideas! I also just added a couple tags to my post.

I was not aware of GladWare containers, and will have to use them to send a birthday-in-a-box before ds's birthday.

The reason it takes so long for packages to get to ds is that the packages are first sent to another base and not immediately forwarded. We sent two boxes about 2 weeks ago and they have not arrived yet. He and I IM most days, he occasionally calls our home and speaks to my husband as well, and he skypes and texts with his fiancee when he gets a chance (all the wonders of modern technology 🙂 ), so we're not in a rush for the boxes to arrive, as long as the contents is still good. The USPS gives a $2 discount for the large flat-rate boxes which go to an APO. We also enjoy decorating the boxes.

Thanks again and have a wonderful new year!

reply by: JennC13 on January 12, 2015 at 5:04 pm

I would try Biscotti - there are many great recipes on the KA website with different variations. Since they are twice baked, they are already "staled" to some extent, and in my experience, can last a month or more. They are also realitively sturdy, so they should make the trip ok 🙂 And thanks to all our troops for what they do everyday!

• This topic was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by cwcdesign.