care package

noun

1. Also CARE package. a package containing food, clothing, or other items sent as necessities to people in need of them.
2. a gift of treats to relatives or friends, especially of items not readily available to them:

   She sends monthly care packages of homemade cookies to her son at college.

Word History and Origins

Origin of care package¹

First recorded in 1945–50; from the aid packages distributed by CARE

Idioms and Phrases

A gift package of food or other items not readily available to the recipient, as in While I was in college, Mom sent me a care package of homemade cookies just about every month . This term originated after World War II with CARE, an organization founded to send needed food, clothing, and other items to war-torn nations. By the 1960s the term had been transferred to sending packages of treats to children at camp, students away at school, and the like.

Example Sentences

For example, this July 4th, his events team sent every employee a care package from the ice cream vendor Van Leeuwen.

From Digiday

Moving forward, more companies will have to treat those holiday plans, whether they are care packages or extra time off, as investments.

From Digiday

We’d only open the front door for delivered groceries and the many meals and care packages that friends, family and colleagues left for us.

From Washington Post

Brooks brought the care package inside but was so exhausted that she had to rest on her couch on the way to the kitchen.

From ProPublica

These are care packages sent weekly from the Wisconsin headquarters to operations across the company, Joslyn explained.

From Fortune

The group Operation Gratitude, for example, says it costs $15 to assemble and ship a care package.

From The Daily Beast

According to gigaom.com, care package sales have already generated $50,000.

From The Daily Beast

Anyhow, Obama is too chilly by nature ever to be convincing as a human care package.

From The Daily Beast

Or you could ship a care package through Any Soldier or Treats For Troops.

From The Daily Beast

It said she had forgotten to pick up the cigarettes, and that they would be in the next care package.

From The Daily Beast