FREQUENTY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. What inspired you to start this not-for-profit?

A. Co-Founder, Rich Lane was inspired by his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to try and do something to make a difference in the lives of the troops who are bravely defending our freedom. The inspiration came to him in the form of his nephew Mike Anderson, who had left Ball State University after the attacks of 9-11-01 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After receiving a gift of jerky and a letter from his uncle Rich, Mike did a truly selfless thing. He shared it with his fellow Marines, who in-turn requested more. That’s where it all started, with the help of family and friends, Rich and his wife Carole were soon making shipments of jerky and letters to a growing number of troops. Through the letter-writing aspect of our mission our goal is to involve an ever-growing number of Americans here at home with personally connecting with the troops and tangibly show their support. Thereby improving the morale of the troops as well as the citizenry back home.

Q. What is a troop? In other words how many people make up a troop?

A. One Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman make up a troop. A single person is a troop. Many people have asked how many Soldiers make up a troop because we refer to our men and women in uniform as troops so often in our literature.

Q. Where do you get the names of troops that you send jerky and letters to?

A. The troops themselves request our service. In keeping with the spirit of how we started this, we continue to accept requests directly from the person who will receive our service. We rarely accept third party requests. 

Q. What if I have a friend or relative who is serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. How can I help enable them to receive Treats & Letters Service?

A. It's easy, give them our postal address or e-mail address and have them request it directly. The Postal address is:

Treats & Letters From America Inc. NFP
P.O. Box 487
St. John, IN. 46373-0487

Or e-mail the request to: unclerich@treatsandletters.org
The postal request must have a military return address and a military postmark. All e-mail requests must be sent from an authorized military e-mail address.

Q. It would be easier for you to just buy the jerky and send it to the troops, so why don’t you? 

A. Yes it would be easier to buy jerky from a store or wholesaler and send it to the troops. The reason that we go to all of the trouble of making it ourselves is because of the countless comments from the troops describing our jerky as the best they had ever tasted. Also by making the jerky ourselves this has become very personal to us. We want to give them what they have been requesting since January 2003, and that is our homemade beef jerky made with our own recipes.  It really is a labor of love for us. We get a real sense of fulfillment every we receive a compliment from an appreciative troop.

Q. Why don’t you sell your jerky?

A. We never intended to start a business to begin with. The response from the troops that we had sent treats and letters to initially, soon grew to numbers, which exceeded our financial abilities, so we incorporated as a not-for-profit. We wanted to make a sincere gesture of love and sacrifice to our troops. To start a not-for-profit with a product that firstly the troops were eager to receive and secondly would be made exclusively for our brave men and women in uniform, was our way of fulfilling that mission. Our jerky cannot be bought but rather is only given away to those who request it while serving our country. Our motivation is to in turn motivate and inspire our troops. We want them to know how much their sacrifices mean to us, so we willingly sacrifice for them. We believe it is a small price for us to pay for the freedom they protect. 

Q. I thought you made and sent cookies to the troops. Are you still doing that?

A. No. We discontinued cookies for a couple of reasons. First, we had trouble with finding affordable packaging that would protect and preserve the cookies through the wide range of environmental as well as physical conditions that the packages would be subjected to. Finally through talking with recently deployed troops who had just returned from Iraq, we found out that cookies made the troops extremely thirsty because of the high sugar content.

Q. How can I help Treats & Letters carry out the mission?

A. In a variety of ways. From writing letters to donating time, services, material (See: Wish List) or money, there truly is a way for every American to contribute to Treats & Letters From America Inc. 

Q. Where do you make the jerky?

A. We make the jerky in an institutional kitchen, which is fully in compliance with, and accessible to the regulatory authority to whom we are accountable.

Q. How do you insure that your jerky is safe for the troops?

A. We start with USDA Inspected Beef Eye of Round. We comply with all food safety requirements that our process is regulated by. We have volunteers who prepare the jerky who are certified in food safety. Additionally we cure each lot of jerky to ensure freshness and safety. We package all of our jerky in vacuum-sealed pouches to further extend freshness. Also, we have just begun having each lot tested at an independent food safety laboratory prior to shipment.

Q. How much of donations given to Treats & Letters goes directly to the troops?

A. Our goal is to keep administrative costs at or below 25% of the total budget. As of today October 15, 2004 there are no employees and no salaries being paid out. All of the revenue generated from our date of incorporation (May 5, 2004 through today), has been used for making and sending jerky to the troops, capital improvements, fund-raising efforts or remains in our business checking account.