<p>What are your / your students’ favorite things to send / receive in a care package? I’d especially love some ideas for healthy snacks or meals easy to prep in microwave.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>My favorite care package was always greenbacks wrapped in more greenbacks. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>It’s not healthy, but Nutella sure is delicious. Speed up that Freshman 15, I say!</p>
<p>my friends and i used to love microwave popcorn, homemade cookies, pictures of our pets, granola bars, gum, mints, magazines, toiletries, and especially starbucks gift cards. but really, getting a care package of any kind is EXTREMELY exciting!
besides popcorn, i cant think of anything else microwavable that you can send thru the mail…</p>
<p>It is funny how many of us are going through the same things at the same time! My wife just baked a batch of cupcakes last night! 
She will pack them in a tin. I suggested cookies, but she insisted the cupcakes would pack and ship easier. S requested a case of canned chile. That’s not going to happen.</p>
<p>my mom just randomly sent me a loaf of home-made banana bread (with chocolate chips!!!), and that made me really really happy :-P. brownies work if you wrap them individually in tin foil, and there are certain types of biscotti (mmmm, apricot-chocolate…) that travel really well.</p>
<p>as for non-home-made stuff, granola bars, magazines, etc. are all good ideas, but they also tend to be things that students can find pretty close to school. I like to get things from my parents that are a little harder to find within walking distance of my dorm… what this is would depend on where your son/daughter is going to school, though.</p>
<p>(oh yes, and pictures of pets are <em>really</em> good about halfway thru first semester, when the workload is high and homesickness kicks in :p)</p>
<p>my son loves rice krispy treats. Has anyone ever tried to send them? If so, were they hard and stale on arrival?</p>
<p>We just got back from a trip to the Philippines (where we went after dropping D off at college). We’ll be sending her dried mango strips and cracker nuts, two of her favorite snacks from the Islands. They’re both commercially packaged, so they’ll keep.</p>
<p>Since S is at his “substitute” Katrina college (Bates) which is only one hour away, I was able to stow away homemade killer brownies in a box of necessities I dropped off on Saturday. But I have been wondering, if we are going to send homemade cookies/brownies - what are the best packing systems? I realize I can order such things from the school’s catering/care package resource etc., but I’m wanting to do the SuperMom thing; after all, think of all the time I’m saving with no nagging to “take out the trash,” “do the recycling”, “Dinner’s ready” - wait two minutes - “Dinner’s ready” - wait five minutes - "Did you hear me say “Dinner’s ready?” I’ve got Nothing But Time.</p>
<p>I’ve sent packages of favorite foods including cookie specialties from each grandmother and everything was certainly appreciated. I started looking for ideas with a little pizzazz - something that the girls could enjoy, and would be happy to share with friends. </p>
<p>A few weeks ago a vendor sent a case of Brownies to our office and - even though I don’t necessarily care if I ever have a brownie - these were about the most delicious chocolate treat I’ve had. Well, brownies are the favorite food group for one of my daughters, so I sent her a case. I received requests for ordering information from other parents whose kids ate the brownies. If you want to check it out, the site is ■■■■■■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>I’ve been paying close attention to the few IMs my S has sent me which seem to indicate he’s missing something. So far, I’ve detected longings for his camera tripod, his Cake t-shirt (which he’d left in his dirty clothes the night before he flew out and would have wanted for the free concert last weekend), and his favorite brand of pretzels. I’ve already got The Above in a little pile outside his (former) bedroom door, awaiting the right time to mail 'em out. Keep those suggestions coming!</p>
<p>For healthy snacks, some schools have fruit packages that you can send, especially during exams. If you want to splurge and/or your child’s school does not have something like that, you could send a small Harry and David fruit baske (usually good quality and well packged). For healthy snacks I suppose collections of small cereal boxes (both wholesome cold cereals and microwavable oatmeal) as well as microwavable popcorn are easy to send, but readily accessible at school I would think so not really a treat. Hot chocolate mix or nice teas are nice as well, assuming the recipient likes them. I think healthy snacks are generally available at most schools for those who want them; for a first-year care package, I’d suggest soemthing a little more festive and less utilitarian (though not necessarily bad for you). I have sent homemade cookies that aren’t too perishable; I also recently sent little indidivual packs of Smartfood (popcorn) tucked around non-food items. A friend of mine has sent her children various Mrs. Field’s gift boxes several times and they’ve been well received–nice to share though not particularly healthy. I have sent those giant chocolate-covered apples that are available from various fancy catalogs for special occasions (like Valentine’s Day)–not exactly healthy, but not really unhealthy, and a family favorite. </p>
<p>jmmom, when I send homemade cookies I pack them as tightly sa possible into plastic food storage boxes (such as Tupperware or Rubbermaid) and then crumple plastic wrap on top of them so they don’t rattle around. Then I cushion the plastic boxes with crumpled newspaper inside a cardboard box (I try to remember to save Amazon boxes for that purpose)–I have sent them FedEx overnight, which gets expensive, but is worth it for a birthday or special occasion. (D is several hundred miles from home.) Second-day is much cheaper and for many homemade items sufficiently speedy.</p>
<p>Thanks, mattmom, your packing system sounds just right.</p>
<p>Yes, I can still recall how special it was to receive care packages when away at college…so, last yr, we must have sent D1 at least 5! 
We included See’s Cafe Latte pops that D2 sold for robotics fundraising, snacks from the local Aisan stores that are not readily available in Philly, chewy bars, local sports section on her favorite team, and a couple of times even great looking flannel lounging pants that I sewed for her and good friend to keep them warm during the winter evenings. For Dec exams, we ordered a large basket of Mrs. Beasley’s assorted cookies for her to share with her floormates. It was fun coming up with new things to pack. I’m slowly accumulating items to ship in about a week.</p>
<p>My Daughter also says anything from home is great (as long as she doesn’t have to be here!) But her absolute favorite is something her Grandma signed her up for – monthly David & Henry fruit. When it arrives, she’s in 7th heaven! Probably a bit expensive, but Grandmas can do things like that.</p>
<p>Another off-the-wall thing my daughter likes is artwork from a favorite niece or nephew (or in this case, day care kid). Actually, I also sent some to her Boyfriend that had fallen in love with one of my little kids.</p>
<p>Of course, the last box (send three days after we dropped her off) contained all the stuff she left!</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>My daughter wants Boiled Peanuts…a Southern specialty and few and far between in Boston. She also wants “Sweet Tea”. (Freshly brewed made with good old sugar syrup). If anyone has any ideas how to get that one to her, please let me know!!</p>
<p>I’ve been popping a small box into the mail at fairly frequent intervals…and addressing said box to both S and his roommate…S appears to like it a lot; his roommate LOVES it! One box had a new bottle of shampoo and his favorite mints (altoids and orange tic tac’s). Another (big box–I went more than a little nuts…spent almost as much on shipping as I did on the box’s contents!) had 2 cases of Coke (his campus sells only Pepsi and he craves Coke), a box of vanilla wafers (his favorite cookie–probably why he’s lean and his chocolate-chip loving mother is pudgy!), microwaveable mac 'n cheese, envelopes of hot chocolate mix, and two big bags of assorted Halloween candy (the non melting-chocolate kind…skittles and starbursts and that sort)…he’s SO excited about that box! I also drop a card in the mail every 4th or 5th day, and at random intervals I stash a bill (one was a $20, one a $5, one a $10)…don’t know that I’ll keep this up…but it makes me feel good to do it, and he does seem to love getting the “care packages”…and he emails and calls home regularly enough that my motivation to keep doing it is very high!</p>
<p>Oh, caromom–i had them once with family–never could figure out the allure, but the company was great!! I bet those wouldn’t ship any easier than opera fudge (for those of you unfamiliar, it is a regional specialty!) I just KNOW you understand!!</p>
<p>Rather off topic, but along the same sentiments: My son’s b’day was two weeks after he arrived at campus, and I was pondering options. I called the dining office, explained the b’day thing, and the manager enthusiastically told me that their chef would LOVE to make a birthday cake for him. He had a pick-up notice put in my son’s campus mailbox on his birthday, saying he had a “package for pickup in the dining hall”. I would’ve loved to have seen the “Huh?” look on his face when he read that. He wandered over to the dining hall with the notice, and the dining hall & chef made a fuss over him and brought out a fully decorated chocolate cake for him! I was amazed that they did this for him, and naturally he was thrilled. Just an option you might look into for your kids, if you can’t be there for their b’days! He attends a small school, so maybe that makes a difference.</p>
<p>caromom, I am from NJ and now live in CA and I LOVE LOVE LOVE boiled peanuts! I discovered [Lee</a> Bros. Boiled Peanuts](<a href=“http://www.boiledpeanuts.com/]Lee”>www.boiledpeanuts.com/) a few years ago: they will FedEx 5 lb. sacks of boiled peanuts, and YUM they are GOOD! They ain’t cheap but it’s an idea, if you wanted to splurge on a surprise someday. (I was introduced to them in the late ‘70s by my first boss, who was Japanese. I recently found a number of Asian vendors at our local farmers’ market who sell them, and I try to load up every other weekend.)</p>
<p>I sent some homemade biscotti last year, and D and her friends really enjoyed them Because they are already dry, they keep really well. I also sent big bags of “Puppy Chow”-- Chex cereal/peanut butter/ chocolate mix. And she loved lots of little things-- holiday decorations for her dorm room, single packages of facial masks, nail polish, etc. Just getting a package made her feel missed, I think.</p>