Troopons®

Details: Published: 12 January 2016; Hits: 232230

Troopons^®–Coupons for Troops

Did you know that expired manufacturer coupons are still good for 6 months at U.S. military bases overseas?

The Support Our Troops^® Troopons^® program enhances the well-being of overseas and domestic military families by sending them food, non-food, baby, and pet manufacturer coupons to make their hard-earned dollars go farther.

What are Troopons?

Mail your coupons to:

Support Our Troops^®
P.O. Box 70
Daytona Beach, FL 32115-0070

Troopons^® are what you can do with coupons you don't use! Send them to the troops overseas! It's an easy way to make a big difference in their lives. Print and use our handy clipping/packing instructions. They get them packed the way the commissaries need them.

How You Can Help:

Here at home it's easy–our papers and magazines arrive full of coupons. Overseas, for military families, it doesn't. However–the stores on overseas military bases accept manufacturer coupons from the United States–even expired ones (see rules below). And here at home military families are not always able to afford the magazines and newspapers that provide coupons.

So what can we do? Well, this is America. We can do anything! Let's all pitch in to help these amazing men, women and families reduce their grocery bills and free up some of their pay for other necessities or niceties. Shopping abroad can be especially tough for military families, because currency exchange rates don't always benefit them, meaning their earnings may not go as far as they would at home.

So every dollar you can help them save in their on-base store, makes their American dollar worth more to them for things off-base.

Troopons Make a Difference:

“It is AMAZING to me how many coupons are sent and how much we can save by using them! It is truly a blessing to us all! Thank you for your dedication to supporting our military and their families overseas! P.S. LOVE the baby, diaper, and Pull-Ups coupons!! Oh, who am I kidding, I love ALL the coupons! THANK YOU!!!!!”
~~ Dawn

~Happy Military Spouse and Mommy to Two Wonderful Angels, currently in Germany, "Hallo, I just would like to let you know that we received your coupons. Thank you very much and mainly for separating them in to those 4 categories for us, it helps a lot. Thank you! God bless you and take care!"
~ Illesheim, Germany.

How to Send Troopons:

Simply mail your coupons the cheapest way you can to us, and we will make sure they get to the troops.

Mail your coupons to:

Support Our Troops^®
P.O. Box 70
Daytona Beach, FL 32115-0070

(Put your email address in the box so we can communicate with you electroncially! It costs a fortune to mail thousands of letters, and we can instead spend that further serving the troops!)

SupportOurTroops.Org administers the routing from there forward to base stores worldwide, and to bases across the U.S. following the constantly changing needs related to category and quantity per location.

What Should I Send?

From manufacturers for individual products; examples include items like soup, pasta, or toothpaste.
Not for individual stores - coupons for individual stores cannot be used.
Clipped out individually.
Packaged in sandwich-size plastic bags
Not assistance vouchers, not food stamps or the like; not restaurant coupons
Separated into food, non-food, baby, and pet baggies (the military advises they will recycle unsorted coupons due to lack of manpower).

Clip Out Your Coupons.

Print and use our handy clipping/packing instructions
We can't clip them for you and the bases will not accept them because they don't have the manpower.
Save people at the base time (they're doing quite enough for all of us already!).
Save on your postage (why pay to ship all the rest of that sheet of paper?).

Good Coupons

Only "Manufacturer's Coupons" can be used.
They can be from the newspaper, dispensers in grocery stores, tear-pads, and elsewhere as long as they state "Manufacturer's Coupon" on them.

Bad Coupons

No assistance vouchers.
No food stamps.
No store coupons.
No restaurant coupons.
No Internet coupons.

Sort & Pack the Coupons

Pack them separated in sandwich-size plastic bags.
Separate food, baby products, and non-food coupons to help the base volunteers and personnel send them to the right stores.
Don't use rubber bands, paper clips, etc.
Put your email address in the box to us so we can communicate with you electroncially! It costs a fortune to mail thousands of letters, and we can instead spend that further serving the troops!

Mark the Bags

Write "food," "baby," "non-food" or “pet” as appropriate on the outside of each bag.
Write the approximate value on the outside of the bag.
Use the maximum value printed on any "buy one, get one free" offers.
If none is printed, estimate.

Effectiveness

SOT conducted a survey of troops regarding the Troopons program administer by Ph.D. survey specialist to assure scientific validity. The results were astounding! The findings show the following about military families served by the Troopons Program:

Over 60% said they use Troopons several times each month
33% said they use Troopons weekly

Military families say use their savings to:

pay other bills
send their children to college
simply “make ends meet”
purchase things they otherwise could not afford

See the whole survey results here.

Frequently Asked Questions. (FAQs)

Are we still doing this?

This is patriotic, but not tax deductible.

Is There a Minimum Donation Size?

What is "Food"?

What is Non-Food?

Does SOT Ship Coupons to Individual Military Families?

No. All of the shipments go to the base stores at which all of the surrounding families will end up anyway. It would be far too expensive and administratively difficult to split out and ship to millions of individual addresses. It would be impossible to estimate and control the proper quantity to individual addresses, and the bulk of them would be wasted be wasted.

Why do you Deem it Best to Ship Only to Military Stores?

It is by far the most efficient method. We can ship in bulk, which saves tremendously on shipping cost. Everyone wants charities to have low overhead and this is one smart way to do it. Families can use what they need while they are at the store and put back what they did not use so that the next shopper may use them. Everyone goes to these stores anyway to do their shopping, and these stores are where the coupons need to end up.
Further, by dealing only at the store level we are able to ship more to stores which tell us they need more, pause shipments to stores that say they have too much, and send less to stores that tell us they need less. This could not possibly be affordably done at the individual level.

Can Off-Base Families Use These Coupons?

Absolutely. Most of the off-base families go on base to do their shopping. And so the coupons will be right there at the store where they are needed. Everyone wants charities to maintain low overhead and avoid waste. Shipping to the store allows us to concentrate the resource were will be found by everybody going there whether they come from on-base or off-base. Postage and shipping to thousands of addresses around bases, multiplied by hundreds of bases, would be astronomically expensive and use up funds that could be spent on other wonderful SupportOurTroops.Org programs benefiting active-duty military. So whether one lives off base or on base they can use the Troopons program because they will find the Troopons located at the on-base store.

Can People Take Coupons From the Store to Use Off Base?

That is up to the policies set by the local base store. Once delivered to the store by SOT, ownership is relinquished and the use of these coupons by the store is without restriction. SupportOurTroops.Org does not believe it needs to micromanage matters after delivery and that such decisions are best made within the military community. SOT just gets its hands on as much stuff as it can and pushes over to the military.
Once it is in the military's hands, the military is best to determine particular aspects of its use.

Buying|Selling Coupons

We do not sell coupons. And this is not an offer to buy coupons. This transfer program is void where prohibited.
We also try not to accept coupons from companies or products wanting to prohibit free transfer of their coupons to military families. In the opinion of many such a practice would be un-American. But to assist implementing the wishes of a company or product wanting their coupons not to be given to military families, we will upon notice post a list of such companies and products on this webpage to notify all good Americans participating in the Troopons program of that company's position and behavior in order to assist in avoiding collection of those types of coupons.

Let's make the troops as proud of us as we are of them!

Japan: "Good morning, On behalf of the Marines, Sailors, civilian employees and family members aboard Marine Corp Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, we would like to thank you and your organization for preparing and sending coupons to our service members and families. We truly appreciate your commitment and contribution to our coupon distribution program and would love for you to keep us on your mailing list. Our personal financial manager here at Marine and Family Services conducts a quarterly "Biggest Saver Coupon Contest," and it has been a huge success here on the air station. Last quarter's winner saved $216.95, and the biggest saver overall saved over $650. The winners receive a free one-hour massage. As you can see, the work that you have put forth with these coupons was not in vain. Again, thank you for all that you do to support our military community."
~~Sincerely, Marine and Family Services, MCAS Iwakuni, Japan.

United Kingdom: "When we receive coupons, our staff separates them into small sealable sandwich bags then affixes labels . . . that all coupons are good for six months past expiration in overseas commissaries. We recently purchased over a dozen stand-alone baskets to hold bags of coupons and strategically placed them around our installation. The popularity of this program has grown to where we restock most baskets weekly and have received numerous comments from individuals on how much these coupons have saved them (up to 70% in some instances). Even I spend an evening once a month sifting through coupon bags at home!"
~~ Col Frank ----

OUR PROGRAMS

Troopons®–Coupons for Troops