Nov 24, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m all for supporting the troops and giving them a bit of home on the holidays, but wow, that’s a lot of money. More importantly, that’s a lot of food.

Here is a breakdown of quantities and dollar values for Thanksgiving meals for servicemembers in Iraq:

– Raw and precooked whole turkey: 225,980 pounds, $795,359.08;
– Turkey white meat: 77,648 pounds, $416,969.76;
– Turkey dark meat: 73,296 pounds, $236,013.12;
– Ham: 40,826 pounds, $135,020.26;
– Beef: 23,536 pounds, $128,019.30;
– Shrimp: 28,764 pounds, $180,062.64;
– Stuffing mix: 37,107 pounds, $87,421.94;
– Potatoes: 41,515 pounds, $102,362.32;
– Sweet potatoes: 9,702 cans, $60,799.20;
– Vegetables, corn, green beans: 59,435 pounds, $80,771.42;
– Cranberry sauce: 7,188 cans, $52,448.44;
– Pie: 26,946 pies, $245,320.33; and
– Cake: 13,544 cakes, $220,915.68.

The total dollar value for Thanksgiving meals in Iraq is $2,741,483.49.

Here is the same breakdown for the $1,301,292.42 spent for Thanksgiving meal items for servicemembers in Afghanistan:

– Raw and precooked whole turkey: 48,228 pounds, $121,143.96;
– Turkey white meat: 28,235 pounds, $134,682.35;
– Turkey dark meat: 14,112 pounds, $32,034.24;
– Ham: 22,950 pounds, $62,424;
– Beef: 112,467 pounds, $520,489.01;
– Shrimp: 21,168 pounds, $140,555.52;
– Stuffing mix: 24,706 pounds, $49,838.88;
– Potatoes: 23,814 pounds, $19,815.60;
– Sweet potatoes: 3,529 cans, $15,017.65;
– Vegetables, corn, green beans: 48,397 pounds, $23,766.47;
– Cranberry sauce: 1,764 cans, $8,869.98;
– Pie: 24,706 pies, $126,411.76; and
– Cake: 2,824 cakes, $46,243.