Angel Blog

Showering Service Members With Candy this Halloween

Last year, our staff was SWIMMING in candy! We collected over 92,000 lbs. of candy!! We did run into a lot of questions once the candy started flowing in, so this year we want to make sure everyone who participates is aware of some important guidelines:

It’s almost October, which means it’s time to bring back our Treats for Troops program! Treats for Troops is simple: businesses sign up to be collection sites and offer incentives or prizes for people who drop off candy; then anyone looking to offload excess candy after Halloween can search our database to find the closest drop off site to them. Once the collection period is over, the businesses must ship the candy to their assigned location, where we will distribute to deployed service members and veterans within the VA Hospital system. 

Last year, our staff was SWIMMING in candy! We collected over 92,000 lbs. of candy!! We did run into a lot of questions once the candy started flowing in, so this year we want to make sure everyone who participates is aware of some important guidelines: 

For Businesses

Businesses interested in being drop-off sites are responsible for providing their own prizes and are also responsible for shipping the collected candy to a site designated by Soldiers’ Angels. The shipping information will be provided to you upon approval for the program and prior to the start of your collection drive. You can also register to be a collection site for employees and not be listed on our public map. In order to do so, please email us at [email protected] or call 210-629-0020. 

Registration to be a collection site closes at midnight on Thursday, October 31st. If you would like to register to be a drop-off site, you can do so here

 

For Individuals

If you’d like to donate excess candy, you can search for a drop-off site near you here. If it is not close enough to drop off, you can email us here or call us at 210-629-0020.

If you live near our office in San Antonio, you are more than welcome to drop off at our office. Our collection hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am – 4:30 pm CST. If you are dropping off more than 300 pounds, we do ask that you call ahead of coming in order for us to ensure we have space in the warehouse to accept your donation.

Candy Guidelines 

There are just a few guidelines to follow for collecting candy.

  • Individually wrapped candy is preferred, but we will accept unopenedsmall bags of loose candy such as candy corn, jelly beans, etc.

  • NO homemade or handmade candy.

  • NO baked goods, homemade or store-bought

  • YES we take chocolate and it does not need to be separated

One last thing, some of you may remember last year that our website crashed on November 1st due to the overwhelming activity for Treat for Troops. Rest assured, we have taken measures to try and prevent a crash from happening this year on November 1st… However, if it doesn’t work, come back to the website in a day or two once the traffic slows down a bit!

Thank you all for your incredible support of Soldiers’ Angels Treats for Troops and all of our collection campaigns! The outpouring of support we receive from our collections is truly incredible. 

For more details on the Treats for Troops program, check out our website here and be sure to read our FAQ page here.