HIGH QUALITY AND LOW PRICES AT YOUR COMMISSARY | JULY 2021
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HIGH QUALITY AND LOW PRICES AT YOUR COMMISSARY | JULY 2021
VISIT MILITARYSHOPPERSNEWS.COM FOR MORE COMMISSARY SAVINGS!
FISHER HOUSE AWARDS 500 SCHOLARSHIPS TO MILITARY
EARN YOUR DEGREE CHILDREN FROM POOL OF OVER 3,600 APPLICANTS
RIGHT
By Mike Perron, DeCA public affairs specialist
FORT LEE, Va. – Even as the COVID-19 pandemic
wreaked havoc on college and university academic
schedules nationwide this year, the Scholarships for
WHERE
Military Children program once again came through
for 500 students from military families who were each
awarded a $2,000 scholarship grant for the upcoming
2021 - 2022 school year.
The program, created in 2001, recognizes the
YOU ARE.
contributions of military families to the readiness
of the fighting force and celebrates the commissar-
ies’ role in enhancing the military’s quality of life.
It’s administered by the Fisher House Foundation, a
nonprofit organization that helps service members
and their families.
It was Fisher House’s efforts in recent years to
modernize the entry process and bring it fully online
(Photo courtesy www.commissaries.com)
which left it well prepared for a year complicated by
$250/Credit Hour for a global pandemic, according to Marshall Banks, Fisher House Foundation’s director of
community relations.
Undergraduate Active Duty “We were very happy with the application process for the 2021-2022 scholarship
programs,” he said. “The quality of applications received this year was exceptional.
We received a total of 3,657 applications from 220 commissaries.” While the application
process went off without a hitch, the usual celebratory ceremonies held at commissaries
for local scholarship winners had to be cancelled due to COVID.
“While we would normally hold a ceremony at the commissary, during these uncertain
times with social distancing, ceremonies could not be held this year,” said Marye Dobson,
the Defense Commissary Agency’s scholarships program liaison. Instead, scholarship
online.odu.edu/mil winners were notified by mail and will receive an official certificate mailed to them by the
commissary where they were selected as the recipient.
Scholarship applicants submit their official transcript indicating a minimum cumulative
GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for high school applicants, or indicating a cumulative
minimum GPA of 2.5 or above on a 4.0 scale for students already enrolled in college; and
an essay of 500 words or less, no longer than two pages. Eligibility is determined using
the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System database. Applicants must ensure
that they, as well as their sponsor, are enrolled in the DEERS database and have a current
military dependent ID card. The applicant must also be planning to attend or already be
attending an accredited college or university, full time, in the fall of 2021 or be enrolled in
a program of studies designed to transfer directly into a four-year program.
Applicants who are awarded a full scholarship to attend a college or university or receive
an appointment to one of the military academies or affiliated preparatory schools are not
eligible to receive funds from this program. A full scholarship is usually defined as one that
provides for payment of tuition, books, lab fees and other expenses. All rules and require-
ments for the program, as well as links to frequently asked questions are available at the
Scholarships for Military Children website (https://fisherhouse.org/programs/scholar-
ship-programs/scholarships-for-military-children/), as is the full list of this year’s winners.
“The window to apply for the 2022-2023 Fisher House Scholarships for Military Children
should open in December and close in February, but the exact dates have not been
determined yet,” said Dobson. “Be sure to check the scholarship page in mid-December
for the opening of the program.”
Fisher House also recently added a custom scholarship search engine to the site, tailored
to military families, called “Scholarships for Service.” It’s free, easy to use, and available on
mobile devices or computers at militaryscholar.org (http://search.militaryscholar.org/).
“Fisher House Foundation is proud of our partnership with the Defense Commissary
Agency that provides scholarships to well-deserving military children,” said Banks.
“Over the last 21 years, we have provided $21,126,000 in scholarships.”
Fisher House Foundation is ranked a Four Star Charity by Charity Navigator. No
government funds are used to support the Scholarships for Military Children Program.
Commissary vendors, manufacturers, brokers, suppliers and the general public donate
money to fund the program.
About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing grocer-
ies to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries
provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared
to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which covers
the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. A core military family support element,
and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the qual-
ity of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and
women to serve their country.
VISIT MILITARYSHOPPERSNEWS.COM FOR MORE COMMISSARY SAVINGS!
Log on to MilitaryShoppersNews.com or Text MILSHOP to 22828 and
What Do You
ENTER TO WIN Want at the
a $100 COMMISSARY or EXCHANGE GIFT CARD! Commissary?
Winner selected each month. by Heather Walsh
Photo Credit: rocketclips/Adobe Stock
You can request items from your commissary!
Did you know you can request items at your local Commissary? One of the annoying things of
moving frequently is that we have to start over with the familiarity of the grocery store. We know
where our favorite items are in the store, and we develop preferences of brand or types of items.
When we move, the next Commissary may not have those favorite items. It’s a simple thing, a
comfort snack for the kiddos or favorite salad dressing, but those creature comforts bring a sense
of familiarity from the previous base and provide consistency in a family where there isn’t a lot of
that. Your local commissary can take requests for your favorite items!
How do I request items?
First step to requesting an item at the commissary is knowing the contact information. If you want
to call the store look up the contact information here and request to talk to the manager. Next step
is making sure you have all the updated and correct information for the item you want to request.
When making a request, make sure to know as much detail about the item as possible – full name
of the item and UPC code if possible. The management team at your local commissary takes your
request to the Sales Directorate for their area.
What about unit events or large orders?
Looking to place a large special order for a unit event? Or perhaps you want to order a case of
your favorite drink or canned item? There is a form for that! Check out the link here for the form
and rules and regulations. In general, the form is used for ordering case quantities, but no more
than 3 cases of 36 units for personal orders and these restrictions are not in place for units.
Considerations for Overseas locations
If you are living overseas, there are additional challenges in getting a requested item. There may
be more rules and regulations in place for importing an item. In addition, there are longer shipping
Message and data rates may apply. times for overseas locations so items with a limited shelf life may not be able to be requested and
transported in a timely manner.
Enhanced online ordering/curbside delivery service moving to all stores
By Rick Brink, DeCA public affairs specialist
FORT LEE, Va. – It’s not an overstatement to say that the new and improved Commissary CLICK2GO™ is, well, very much new and improved.
Now featuring online payment and more product information than ever before, the online ordering/curbside delivery service is being expanded
to all stateside commissaries by the end of the year, and to overseas stores soon thereafter.
“We’ve learned a lot about what our customers want during our initial 11-store rollout the past two years, and thanks to recent innovations to our
e-commerce platform we’ve made tremendous service and user-interface improvements that customers expect in today’s retail environment,”
said Bill Moore, director and CEO of the Defense Commissary Agency. “We’re going to deliver this great service to all commissaries as quickly
as possible.”
Tiara Edwards loads groceries in the vehicle of one of the Because of grocery shopping trends, DeCA has been galvanized to bring online ordering, payment and pick-up options to all commissary-eligible
first customers to use the Fort Lee Commissary Click2Go patrons. The Food Marketing Institute recently reported that online grocery shopping has escalated to previously unpredictable rates since the
online ordering/curbside delivery service Aug. 4. COVID-19 pandemic broke out. FMI had estimated that 20 percent of all U.S. grocery shopping would be done online by 2025. However, the rates
(DeCA photo: Rick Brink)
of e-grocery sales expected to occur over a 10-year timeframe actually occurred in just six months.
Here’s a brief rundown of Commissary CLICK2GO’s new features:
• Improved navigation and search functions to help customers • Featured sales and promotions
plan healthy meals and take care of their family’s needs • Upgraded mobile-friendly experience, to include seeing order
• Enhanced product information history for ease in re-ordering desired products
• Robust recipe features • Online payment
“Perhaps the most significant enhancement is online payment,” Moore added. “You place your order and pay online, and then it’s simply a matter of driving up to the curbside delivery area of your
commissary to have your groceries loaded into your vehicle – that’s a streamlined process our customers expect in this information age.” Information on how the service works and the rollout status is
found on commissaries.com with dedicated sections such as “How CLICK2GO Works.” First-time customers will need to create an account. Moore said the agency-wide expansion of online ordering/
curbside delivery service aligns with DeCA’s strategic goals to make the commissary benefit accessible to as much of the patron base as possible.
“Our CLICK2GO rollout has been long desired by our patrons and we fully grasp that they expect us to deliver this convenient method of grocery shopping as soon as possible – they want to know
when they will see it at their commissary,” Moore said. “I can assure you that we’re working as hard as we can to make this happen as quickly as possible.
“We’ll have the schedule on our website to keep people updated as best we can,” he added. “Our promise is to get it to all U.S. stores this calendar year – maybe sooner – and we are committed to
getting it to our overseas stores soon thereafter, as we work through international challenges like COVID restrictions.
“Commissary CLICK2GO builds on the vital benefit we deliver exclusively for our military community and their families – we deliver the savings but we have to improve on convenience and CLICK2GO
does just that,” Moore said. “With it, patrons near and far can plan, order and pay for their purchases on-line and simply swing by the store to get them. It makes the commissary worth the trip and I
envision it will enable us to eventually offer delivery – where our patrons can enjoy their hard-earned benefit from the comfort of their homes or barracks.” -DeCA-
Prices in this flyer may not be available in all commissaries or the product may not be available, especially in Alaska, Hawaii or Overseas locations.
Not all items are available in all commissaries. Advertised prices are subject to change. Address advertising inquiries to:
Military Media Inc., 27 Collegeview Ave., 1st Floor, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 (845) 454-7900.
This advertising is neither paid for, nor sponsored by, the Defense Commissary Agency or the Department of Defense.
The Commissary is not responsible for errors in commercially funded advertising. ©2021 Military Media Inc.You can also read
