Operation Sauce Drop Ships 1,000th Gift Box!

Operation Sauce Drop reached a major milestone today, shipping its 1,000th free gift box of sauce and bringing its total to 1,005 gift boxes shipped to US troops! As you may know if you are a regular reader of my blog, Operation Sauce Drop is a non-profit program of the Carolina Sauce Company that ships free gift boxes of hot sauce, barbecue sauce and other zesty condiments to US troops serving overseas. I was inspired to start the program back in 2007, when my brother-in-law who is in the Army was deployed to Iraq. He had commented that although the military certainly provided plenty of food, it tended to be very bland and boring, and that his fellow service members greatly appreciated receiving an occasional taste of home. And thus Operation Sauce Drop was born. US servicemembers with an APO or FPO address can select a free gift box of their choice, and we ship it to them at absolutely no cost to them. Operation Sauce Drop is funded through donations from regular folks like you, plus the proceeds of our Shop to Support Operation Sauce Drop program, and also by the Carolina Sauce Company. One hundred percent of all funds raised are used solely to purchase and ship the gift boxes at cost -- we make no money from OSD, and we donate the labor, materials and overhead involved in operating the program.

The free sauces and condiments have become a favorite of the troops, as you can see from their photos and thank-you notes to donors, including some new recently-received notes and photos. It's amazing how much a seemingly insignificant little token of support or flavorful reminder of home can mean so much to a service member stationed far from home. With the holidays right around the corner, we'll likely experience a surge of Operation Sauce Drop gift box requests. In the past, donations have not kept up with gift box requests, resulting in a waiting list and the temporary suspension of the program until enough donations were received to fulfill the pending requests. At this moment, Operation Sauce Drop has just enough funds left to cover the cost of one more gift box. Please help us keep this program going by making a donation on our secure site (and no amount is too small) or treating yourself to some tasty sauces through our Shop to Support OSD program. If you'd like to read more about Operation Sauce Drop, simply visit the main OSD page or search this blog for "Operation Sauce Drop" to read older posts. And if you have supported the program in the past, please accept my heart-felt THANK YOU for supporting our troops and helping to send them a little taste of home!

Zestfully yours,
Gloria