PHILADELPHIA –
Manually tracking orders for religious items like wine and palm reflects the significance of Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Clothing and Textiles supply chain’s annual support to servicemembers across the globe for Easter, Passover, Ash Wednesday, and Palm Sunday.
This year the religious support team provided 15 orders of wine or grape juice, 68 orders of palm and Orthodox palm, 44 Seder kits and 25 orders of ashes, according to lead customer support account specialist Christine McCann.
McCann coordinated with stakeholders to complete all the orders with guidance from Supervisory Customer Relationship Specialist Christopher Gaudio.
“This is a morale-based program, when our service members can feel like their home, wherever they are in the world, it’s definitely a morale booster,” Gaudio said. “It’s a truly high visibility program.”
McCann and Gaudio coordinated with DLA teams including DLA Distribution and other federal agencies like U.S. Central Command and the Department of State to clear customs and ensure items made it to servicemembers on time.
Each year C&T sends out electronic marketing blasts three to four months ahead of the spring holidays to customers at nearly 80,000 Department of Defense Activity Address Codes with prices, timelines and other key ordering information in coordination DLA Logistics Operations.
In addition to C&T’s support, the Subsistence supply chain also provided nearly $365,000 in Passover kosher Meals, Ready-to-Eat to servicemembers around the world.