Kansas University senior Jason Foster of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, loves getting care packages from home.

Kansas University senior Jason Foster of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, loves getting care packages from home.

With the fall semester halfway done but the holidays still out of grasp, it might be time to send a little love from home to your friend or family member who’s at college.

Nicole Anderson, a resident assistant at Kansas University’s Oliver Hall, says students who receive care packages from home become pretty popular.

“Everyone always crowds around to try to steal food when someone gets a care package,” says Anderson, a sophomore from Keller, Texas.

The ingredients for the perfect care package vary by student. Jason Foster, a senior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says the packages he receives from his mother often include banana bread and cookies.

“Getting homemade food was a really nice change from dorm food,” Foster says. “It was a taste of home, baked with love.”

For Dan Weber, a sophomore from Atlanta, muffins from home meant he had an extra meal for a day.

Students say mementos from home help them transition into a new lifestyle and stave off homesickness.

“My mom would send newspaper clippings from home of things she thought I’d be interested in,” Weber says.

Letters from parents are also a good way to lift spirits, especially when students are still adjusting to their new lifestyles.

“My parents would always send a letter with it, hoping classes were going well,” Anderson says. “I really liked that.”

Along with the comfort of food and reminders of home, students who are strapped for cash say they enjoy appreciate gift cards.

“Gift cards to Wal-Mart, Target or Home Depot are all extremely useful,” Weber says.

Receiving a care package during finals week or on holidays helps ease anxieties or feelings of homesickness.

“My mom would send me random things, like glow-in-the-dark bracelets, just for fun,” Anderson says. “But for my birthday, she sent me a Ho Ho cupcake and a birthday candle.”

Regardless of what’s in the package, students say they enjoy receiving mail from home. And unplanned care packages are an especially nice surprise, says Heidi Welsch, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo.

“Everyone gets really excited,” she says, “but even more so when it’s unexpected.”