Halloween Candy for Heroes! — A Great Use of Your Extra Halloween Candy

If you’re like our family, your kids won’t need all the Halloween candy they’ll receive. You also won’t need the leftovers you have from buying more candy than you’ll be able to pass out.

A great use of that Halloween candy is to remind our troops that they’re not forgotten! You can thank our troops, make someone’s day, share your candy and even get a tax deduction. You only need to bring your candy to your local drop off location.

Listed below are some great organizations collecting candy.

Ways you can help:

1. Donate leftover candy (but please don’t include pixy stix or powdery candy – they don’t ship well). Here are places that will accept your candy:
2. You can find a Soldiers’ Angels drop off near you as well as directions to mail your candy directly to their office. Soldiers’ Angels distributes the candy to deployed troops, veterans, and wounded veterans in VA Hospitals. They have sent over 800,000 care packages.
3. You can ship your excess candy to Move America Forward, a nonprofit that provides care packages and letters to U.S. troops deployed around the world. You can also send Move America Forward letters for troops, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
4. You can also ship your excess candy and letters for troops to Operation Shoebox, a nonprofit that sends care packages to U.S. troops. They accept candy and letters year-round.
5. The Halloween Candy Buy Back program has dental offices across the country that will buy your candy for cash or prizes or raffle tickets or some sort of reward and send the candy and tooth brushes to troops. The distribution started with a single dentist looking to help our troops and is now accessible across the US. Their partners, Move America Forward, and Operation Shoebox, are nonprofits that provides care packages to troops.
Looking for more ideas about how to spread kindness? Check out, HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time. This National Bestseller is filled with true stories about how one small deed can make a world of difference and dozens of ways we can all have an impact. “Elegant and wise” (Deepak Chopra). “The most uplifting and life-affirming book in years” (Forbes). Learn more about HumanKind.

You can even take a deduction for the value of your candy on your taxes.

What a nice way to say, “Thank You Veterans” and to support our troops.

Happy Halloween!

Related Stories

Here’s another Halloween Act of Kindness. This one with a teal pumpkin. You can also learn about how blue halloween buckets are helping children with autism.

Here are 103 Random Acts of Kindness that will make you an everyday hero.

“Operation Gratitude: Thank you very much for your continued love and support. I am reminded that I am not forgotten!!” – SSG A.A.