No More Care Packages
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-13208104

The Army have told a British couple to stop sending care packages because they're a logistical nightmare and could be a security risk. The woman said their letter only makes her more determined to send them. Who's right here? I don't think I'd keep on sending parcels if asked to stop, but I'd be mighty pissed off. Are they really a risk/burden. They must be if it prompted the army to write a letter. Perhaps it's a polite way for them to deal with the couple sending stuff no-one wants? I'd be interested to learn what's in a typical package.

This isn't an entirely new story, the army have been making this request for a while now. I think it becomes a particular problem around christmas time when folk are determined to send all kinds of useless junk (I have a memory of someone sending colouring-in books).

As for this pair of eighty year-olds, well they say they send "everything they miss from home" to total strangers. I hate to imagine...

Well, there's home-baked cookies.

My mother would send me one each date nut bread (very sticky, that was) and cranberry nut bread (tart and inclined to crumble) for the holidays.

The key word to me is "unsolicited".
Why can't she link up with one of the charities that have an established system? That way she'll know what she's sending is really what's needed, it will be security checked before despatch and will go where it won't put undue stress on logistics.

Yeah, it's gotten like that with out-of-CONUS US military too. It has meant nobody got a sudden bang out of a package allegedly from someplace like home.