A Letter From A Fan

I received an email from a fan. I was surprised to hear about the food conditions that our military works under. It made me feel grateful for the food choices I have daily.

Dear Dr. Laura,

I am a Family Medicine physician in the US Navy, and I am currently stationed in Iraq with the Marines as part of a Shock Trauma Platoon. This is my first deployment. We have been here for about 4 months and have about 3 months to go.

I recently received a care package from one of my friends that contained your Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bite-lettes. I had never had them before and they are such a welcome treat! Our base is very small and our food options are very limited. The choices served at our chow hall are all pre-cooked and reheated by either frying or boiling. The limited produce that we have is canned. The few food items sold in our exchange are similar: reheatable entrees, chips, canned meats, and squirtable cheeses. Also, since I am 1 of 3 females on a base of nearly 500 young men, there is not much clamoring for healthier options.

These bites not only arrived safely in their plastic container after 3 weeks of bouncing around in the mail, they were also still soft and chewy despite 130 degree heat. They are the closest things we've had to home-baking for over 4 months. And I love that you use all natural ingredients without any extra junk -- they taste so wonderful because they're made with wonderful, good things. I feel healthier by eating just 1! Not only are they good for my body, as a fellow doctor, they're good for my conscience. Hopefully a store in the Palm Springs area will start to sell them, so that I can recommend them to my patients, as well as stock up myself.

Thank you so much for enriching my deployment in such a tasty, delightful way!

Your lifelong fan,
Julianne LoMacchio Palumbo, DO
LT MC USN

P.S. I attached a photo of our STP group and one of me in front of our ambulance, as well as the view from inside our trauma center, so you get an idea of what it's like out here!

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Comments

[Matt Cobb]

What a great story! We are so fortunate to have healthy food choices available here in the United States. It would be nice for the military to have more healthy options too. My favorite cookie is Cole's Cashew...very tasty. And to know that it's vegan is even better!

[DemoDolly]

This is such a moving article about our Troops who sacrifice so much for us.
It is wonderful to send a "little bit of home" to Iraq and "sweeten up their day."
Glad they got to finally taste something really moist and chewy.

[kslurker]

Great letter. Kudos to our troops!

[Stefanie Trice Gill]

Love this letter! How cool that it still tasted like home cooking after 3 days in the mail...

[Erika Kerekes]

What a shame, that our troops get so little healthy, fresh food to energize them throughout their tours. But logistics are logistics, I guess. Not much produce growing in the desert.

[toolhater]

Sorry, I meant KBR.

[toolhater]

Since all the food we feed the soldiers is billed to the government at cost plus 15%, I don't see any reason why KBG or whoever has the food contract wouldn't want to send the cookies to the soldiers. Especially the cashew ones!

[Dynamohum]

It would have been nice to see the picture of the doctor's unit in Iraq.