Linda Jones of Cumming, Georgia, did not start Treat the Troops, but she has certainly embraced the concept.
“Treat the Troops was started close to 30 years ago by Jeanette Cram who lives in Hilton Head,” Jones said. “At one time, we had several chapters in each state around the country.”
However, she says, Georgia did not have a chapter. So she recruited some friends and started baking cookies. The groups first packing event yielded 32 boxes and more than 3,000 cookies. That was seven years ago.
“We are at 8,936 boxes with over 1,057,000 homemade cookies,” Jones said. “And literally thousands of pounds of candy and cereal bars. We call them filler items - crackers, Little Debbie snack cakes, beef jerky, oatmeal.”
The cookies are all homemade by volunteers, and there’s every cookie you can think of.
“It just means the world to them, especially some of these guys and gals that have no family, nobody to support them,” Jones said. “If the cookies contain nuts, we ask that the baker please put a little label to alert the soldier, in case they have allergies.”
Thursday evening will be the groups second packing event for the year, then the boxes will be shipped out on Friday. The goal is to get at least 7 dozen cookies in each box.
“It costs us $18.45 to ship each box, so we put as much product in there as possible,” Jones said. “We shake the box to make sure we fill everything.”
She says they’re always trying to get more names and addresses of soldiers who might appreciate the sweet treats. You can make a cookie request by visiting the group’s official website.
Dog cookies are also sent to military canines, but those are packed separately.
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