Treats for Troops is officially open, and we are excited to announce new updates to the process this year. For those who don’t know, Treats For Troops is an annual Halloween candy collection drive we run from October through the end of the year. All donated candy is sent overseas to deployed Service Members or distributed to Veteran patients at VA Hospitals across the country.

How it works

There are a few ways to participate but the gist is: donate your extra Halloween Candy! If you’re a business or organization looking to engage your community, you can register as a collection site and collect lots of candy to send. If you’re an individual or family, you can find a collection site near you or send you candy to a specified location.

How to Participate

We’ve made a few changes to the process that we think volunteers and collection sites will appreciate, so even if this is not your first time, keep reading! This year, you can select where you want to send your candy: overseas to a Deployed Unit, to a stateside installation, or to a local VA Hospital where you can HAND DELIVER them instead of shipping them!

Step 1: Register to volunteer – Everyone who participates must become a verified Angel in our database. This is because you’ll have access to addresses and information to ship your candy. We want to ensure we know exactly who has access for the safety and security of our heroes. Here is a step-by-step process if you have trouble.

Our Angel Verification can be done one of two ways, and you can select which way during registration.

• Donation Verification: Make any donation to Soldiers’ Angels. Once processed, you’ll get immediate portal access to select and participate in opportunities. Click this link to make a donation and gain immediate basic access to the portal and opportunities, typically within 12-24 hours. 
• Social Security Address Trace: Use Verified First, a third-party background check company. Soldiers’ Angels covers the cost. After registration, Verified First will email you a form requiring your date of birth and Social Security Number. This is not a credit check and does not have any impact on your credit. Soldiers’ Angels never sees this info. The check takes 48 -72 hours, so it will take a little longer before you can access our volunteer portal and opportunities.

Step 2: Decide if you are participating as an individual donor or collection site. If you plan on simply donating your extra candy, search our Candy Collection Site map to find the nearest dropoff location here. Be patient, the map will grow as we get closer to Halloween! Please note: Collection sites are for individual donors. If you are a school, group, or organization and have more than 10lbs of candy, then you MUST register as a collection site and ship your candy. You can select “private” when registering as a Collection Site and not appear on the map.

If you are a Collection Site, register your site and add to our candy collection site map here. Starting October 1, you’ll be able to log in and see a list of VA hospitals, Military installations, and Guard/Reserve units waiting for this collected candy. Select one or more recipient locations from that list and deliver or ship the candy to them directly. Registration to become a candy collection site will close at 11:59 pm CT on October 31, 2024 or once we reach our candy capacity.

Step 3: If you’re an individual donor, collect your candy and drop it off at a collection site! Easy peasy! If you’re a collection site, get your display set up and ready to receive candy. Some site even incentivize donors with prizes. Once the collection dates are over, simply package up the candy and mail it to the site you chose to support. Participants are responsible for all shipping/delivery costs to get the candy to the designated recipient location. 

Other ways to participate

Not Trick-or-Treating this year? Help us by making treat bags filled with candy! We receive thousands of pounds of candy donations every year, most of the candy is loose, and we utilize volunteers to put it into baggies and make shareable portions. If you’re looking for a fun and easy project, learn more here.

Service Members and Veterans look forward to Spooky season each year because they know that delicious candy is coming! Learn more about Treats for Troops here.

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