By the Pentagon's own estimate, thousands of military families live in poverty. Despite recent salary increases, many enlisted men and women say they can't afford food and other basic needs.
Source: globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/2003/0115military.htm

This is a list of things that you can do to help support our troops.
(In alphabetical order).

Any Soldier. Sergeant Brian Horn from LaPlata, Maryland, an Army Infantry Soldier with the 173rd Airborne Brigade was in the Kirkuk area of Iraq when he started the idea of Any Solder to help care for his soldiers. He agreed to distribute packages, that came to him with "Attn: Any Soldier" in the address, to the soldiers who were not getting mail. Brian is in Afghanistan now, and Any Soldier Inc. continues with your support. Any Soldier Inc. started in August 2003 as a simple family effort to help the soldiers in one Army unit, thus its name. However, due to overwhelming requests, on 1 January 2004 the Any Soldier effort was expanded to include any member, of any of the Armed Services in harms way. All the Soldiers involved in this effort are military volunteers stationed in areas that are in harm's way. You send your support (letters and/or packages) addressed to them and when they see the "Attn: Any Soldier" line in their address they put your letters and packages into the hands of Soldiers who don't get much or any mail first. Everything is shared.

America Supports You is a nationwide program launched by the Department of Defense, will recognize citizens' support for our military men and women and communicate that support to members of our Armed Forces at home and abroad. Hosting events and undertaking projects to support America's Armed Forces, especially in forward-deployed areas of the Global War on Terrorism. AmericaSupportsYou.mil is an official Department of Defense web site.

Books For Soldiers. Send troops books, DVDs, games and relief supplies. Access the Pen Pal area and Post Card Jamboree. On average our volunteers fill over 1000 requests a month. BFS is a non-profit corporation, operated as a ministry of a non-denominational church in North Carolina.

Lets Say Thanks. Go to this web site, pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and send it to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.

Operation Gratitude together with the California Army National Guard, 746th QM BN, Van Nuys, seek to lift troops' morale, and bring a smile to their faces by sending care packages to service members overseas. OPERATION GRATITUDE care packages contain food, toiletries, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support.

Operation USO Cares is enlisting support of individuals around the world to support the troops through Operation USO Care Package. These packages are being delivered to members of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed around the world to show them they have not been forgotten and to provide a ‘touch of home’. With a donation of $25 you can sponsor a care package and include a personal message of support and encouragement.

Treats for Troops provides a safe, easy way to support American soldiers all over the world, every day of the year. The unique Foster-A-Soldier™ Program makes it possible for every American to put a smile on the face of someone serving our country. The Foster-A-Soldier Program automatically matches you with a registered soldier by branch of service, home state, gender, or birthday – or you can choose to sponsor a group of soldiers. Then all you have to do is go shopping in the Treats for Troops Gift Shops, and your care package will be on its way. Everything from freshly baked cookies to hand and face wipes and phone cards, all carefully packed and safely shipped according to military and postal regulations.

Un Met Needs Your donations of skill, time and money enable the Unmet Needs Program to provide assistance of many kinds to families of American service men and women here at home. 100% of your donation goes directly to a military family in need. The program is administered by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Funds from donations are available to the five branches of service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard), as well as members of the Reserves and National Guard. Funds awarded by the program are offered in the form of grants, not loans, so recipients don’t need to repay them. A 501c3 Non-Profit organization.

Wounded Warrior Project Recipient of “the most inspirational charity in the nation”. The mission of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is to raise public awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, to help severely injured service members to aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. Contributions to the Project are tax deductible.

IDEAS FOR CARE PACKAGES:
Powdered Kool-Aid and Gatorade
Batteries
Face & Hand Wipes
Magazines
Beef jerky
Hand-held games
CDs and CD players
DVDs and DVD players
Paperbacks
Cookies or chips
Snacks of any kind - but especially ones that don't melt!

It is recommended that the following not be included in care packages: pork products, pornography or items of a "sexual nature," sharp objects, and alcohol. Include your return address on the package so it is not misidentified as a "suspicious" package.

Please use the U.S. Postal Service to ship care packages and letters of support. Commercial shippers such as FedEx, Airborne, UPS, etc. do not presently deliver in Iraq. The U.S.P.S. delivers packages with APO addresses to the U.S. military, which, in turn, delivers them to the appropriate units. Postage rates are the same as for domestic U.S.

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