My hubby just took off for Iraq a few weeks back (for 5 long years, ick!) He recently bunked with a group of guys who have noone on the homefront to send them goodies, so he asked me to bake some cookies, brownies and stuff for them and ship them off. Alhough I am sure they would be greatly appreciated by these guys, I don't want them to arrive stale or worse yet, crushed to pieces.
How would I go about packaging and shipping them for the long trip so they stay nice and fresh, and in tact? Also, what should I NOT send (besides the obvious things that have dairy icings, etc...)?

I was just at the post office last week and asked about this! One of my good friends is in his second tour and his b-day is in Oct and I want to send him a cake. I've sent him cookies before. He said most of them made it With cookies I stack two together, bottom to bottom. Then I pack the cookie pairs in a box stuffed w/ newspaper, making sure there is newspaper between the cookies. I'm sure there is a better way to get more in a box, but this is how I've done it.
The lady at the post office said that they are now taking a week at the most to get pkgs over there - used to be 3wks! She suggested freezing the cake and sending it right out of the freezer. That way it will thaw while being shipped and will buy you a day of freshness. I would put it in a large ziplock bag somehow so that the condesaton doesn't get the box wet. She talked about using foam around it, but I'm not sure where to get that.
One thing I do know when sending food products, don't pack them w/ other items. For example, if you send gum and deodarent in the same box, you might end up w/ deoderant flavored gum b/c of the heat Good luck. Hope I helped you a little.

Just pack them in as tight as you can so they don't shift around in the package. One thing I learned from my DH when he was gone.....NO MATTER what they look like when they get there....they get eaten FAST!

Something that one of my friends Mom's used to do in college was send a
"Cupcake Party" in a box. She would pack un-iced cupcakes in a shoebox (really tightly with waxed paper inbetween) and then in the outer box would put the container of icing and sprinkles and maybe birthday candles. Then on my friend's birthday we would all gather around and ice the cupcakes with plastic knives.

But other than that - I would think that maybe some of the Fort websites would have helpful hints or something like that for families left behind.

Good luck to you and your hubby! With any luck we can get him and his buddies home sooner than 5 years for now.

Thanks I keep telling him - "only 2 years, honey, only 2!" He is not listening.
I think I will just wrap them tightly in as many layers of whatever I can find, maybe even place them in those re-usable containers to boot. I am sure they will get gobbled up no matter how they look, you ladies are right

some of my family members have been overto Irag for a total of 7 times, and I found that pringles can and a small cookie scoop was perfect to use and the cookies would fit in the pringles cans without much movement and then I would tape the lids aroundthe top of can, and I also learned to pack the corners of the box with loose candies ,also I would put packages of marshmallows on bottom sides and throw in hot chocolate packages, or what ever I had on hand to help cushion the box.
any way one time my brother didn't get his box, because a new group arrived and forgot to get their mail, so the box came back 6 weeks later and believe it or not the cookies were still sealed and tasted fresh,I sent them to work with my husband and no one got sick LOL!
another hint is to take cardboard from another box and glue it into the corners for reinforcement, it helps from keeping the box being mashed. also you probably won't believe what you can get into the Flat Rate Boxes, they are excellent for shipping items. you can get them free at the post office or order them online, they ship them to your house free, I believe they come in a box of 25. good luck with your shipping

You can get foam at any hardware store(Lowes or Home Depot) That will help keep in the cool. There are also lots of things out there to help keep in the cool when shipping. Just make sure that you pack them as tightly as possible. Good luck to you!

My best friend is in Iraq, and a couple of my girlfriends get together to send him goodies. We package cookies and brownies in cheap rubbermaid-knock-off (from Walmart) fresh seal containers. I will get like 2 of them for $5. We put the cookies and brownies in there with layers of parchment paper or wax paper between the layers so they dont all stick together, because of the heat, they do melt together a little.

I am going to get a huuuuge box together this time, and send him a twinkie cake for Christmas. He says he dreams of Twinkies, because he cant get them over there.