Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy every year just for Halloween. That means lots of extra calories and sugar temptations for days and weeks to come.

One strategy to decrease temptation and consumption, is to remove these sugary treats from your home and donate leftover candy to persons or organizations in need. Donating provides a great opportunity to teach children about sharing and kindness, while supporting healthy food choices.

“Giving back to our Soldiers” provides a fantastic opportunity to express our gratitude by sharing these treats and maybe even adding a note of thanks for their service.

Operation Gratitude
Operation Gratitude sends care packages to U.S. troops stationed in overseas and first responders stateside. The organization’s mission is simple: to put a smile on soldiers’ faces. Kids are encouraged to include letters and pictures, too.

Soldiers’ Angels
Soldiers’ Angels organizes Treats for Troops annually. Visit the website to find a donation drop-off point, or register to start a drive of your own.

Operation Shoebox and Any Soldier
These are two more organizations that collect and send care packages to troops overseas. Operation Shoebox accepts individually wrapped candies all year long. Meanwhile, Any Soldier allows you to decide which branch of the armed forces you’d like to support: Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines.

Here are some other strategies:

• Out of site, out of mind: Try keeping their favorite fruits and veggies in sight and put the candy somewhere where they have to dig for it.
• Trade treats for treasures: Plan a visit from the Halloween Witch.Tell your kids a tall tale about the Halloween Witch (or fairy). Like her cousin the Tooth Fairy, she sneaks in on the night of October 31 to spirit away candy–and leave a special toy or other gift in its place.Jennifer Tyler Lee posted this clever idea for reducing candy consumption on the Huffington post: Some parents invite their kids to leave a donation to the Switch Witch, who collects up Halloween candy and leaves a present in exchange. Similar to this idea, we’re going to trade treats for treasures. Five candies buys you a pack of hockey cards or a take-apart eraser. Twenty-five candies gets you a bucket of balls at the driving range. One hundred candies can be redeemed for tickets to the local college basketball game.
• Use candy for crafts: Use use the candy as the raw material to build a holiday house. Have your kids make a candy wreath by gluing packaged candies onto a wreath. Fun and decorative at the same time! A great way to use up extra candy and keeps the kids busy.
• Just add milk: Serve a glass of nonfat milk or water to enjoy with the candy. This will help balance what they are consuming and leave less room in their their stomach for more candy.

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