GRAND RAPIDS, Mich (WOOD) — Halloween is just days away and many trick-or-treaters will come home with so much candy that they won’t know what to do with it all. A national nonprofit has an idea.
Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit founded in 2003 to support military members, veterans and their families, has a program called Treats for Troops, which collects Halloween candy to send to military members and veterans.
“It’s an opportunity for us to collect that leftover Halloween candy to get it to our deployed troops who love it, Guard and Reserve units, VA Medical Centers, active duty installations and be able to distribute to those who love the excess candy. But it’s also a great opportunity to go through their children’s candy and really limit their pool of what they’re accessing or they get rid of that extra candy that maybe they didn’t have enough trick-or-treaters to come to get and they want to find a use (for) it,” Amy Palmer, Soldiers’ Angels president and CEO, told News 8 Monday.
Last year, the program collected over 100,000 pounds of candy. This year, Soldiers’ Angels is hoping to collect 150,000 pounds, a post on its Facebook page said.
The project accepts individually wrapped candy and chocolate as well as unopened small bags of loose candy. According to the website, Treats for Troops will not accept homemade candy, homemade baked goods or store-bought baked goods.
The candy is collected by businesses, schools, organizations and families across the country. Soldiers’ Angels has an interactive map on its website that lists all the public collection sites.
Anyone who collects more than 10 pounds of candy must register as a candy collection site. Registration ends at 11:59 p.m. CT on Oct. 31 (12:59 a.m. EST Nov. 1). Once registered, the location will be able to choose from a list of VA hospitals, military installations and guard or reserve units to which it will mail or deliver the collected candy.
Once the candy arrives at the Soldiers’ Angels location, volunteers and workers first work to package it to send to deployed military members.
“We send hundreds of boxes to individual service members, but we also send it to special ops units that are deployed, (those) are larger boxes, and chaplains. A lot of chaplains will go out in the field to visit the forward-deployed troops and they’ll take it out to give out the little bags or they put it in their chapel hut…” Palmer said.
Palmer said once candy packages go out to those who are deployed, any remaining may stay at active duty bases, Guard units, veteran centers and VA hospitals.
“Although these service members register with us to receive this candy… in three weeks, they have forgotten that they asked for it. And so, when they get a package in the mail from us and they get their name called at mail call, it really makes a difference… And candy is easy to share with others. They’re able to share it with their friends and their coworkers really easily,” she said.
The Treats for Troops program is specifically geared towards Halloween candy, but Palmer said that Soldiers’ Angels collects candy year-round. Anyone interested in sending candy at a later date or learning about how they can volunteer or donate can learn more by visiting the Soldiers’ Angels website or by calling 210.629.0020.
