American Relief Administration Food Remittance Package

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An American Relief Administration Food Remittance Package was the name for a food package of the American Relief Administration (ARA) in the years after the First World War . In the Republic of Austria , the term "dollar package" was also used.

The framework

Three to four million families in the United States had kinship ties to Europe in 1919, which was suffering from a food shortage. Direct personal support was often the first thought, but the currencies were shattered, especially in the defeated countries, food in exchange for hard currencies was only available at extremely inflated prices and the shipping of American goods was only possible at freight costs that were equal to the value of the package contents. In addition, the package could be looted shortly before the destination. Herbert Hoover , then President of the ARA, suggested to his staff that they work out a system of deliveries with food instructions that would do justice to the circumstances. For three months, the superiors of the relief organization worked on the concept, which described a simple and foolproof procedure for dispensing food from the stocks of the ARA warehouses in exchange for a change in food . Although five countries were eligible, it had to be a uniform package, the content of which had to meet the highest standards. Food experts standardized the content in such a way that the greatest possible nutritional value was delivered in relation to the price and package volume.

The package itself

We started with four different versions:

Package “A” for 10 dollars with

11.1 kg of flour
4.5 kg of beans
3.6 kg of bacon
8 cans of milk

Package "B" for 50 dollars with

63.5 kg of flour
22.6 kg of beans
7.3 kg of bacon
6.8 kg lard
5.4 kg corned beef
48 cans of milk

The packages “C” and “D” met the requirements of a kosher diet and instead of meat products contained an equivalent amount of cottonseed oil . From November 1920, falling food prices made it possible to add sugar and cocoa.

During the great Russian famine of 1921 , only a $ 10 version was used, with the following content:

22.2 kg of flour
11.3 kg of rice
1.4 kg of tea
4.5 kg of fat
4.5 kg of sugar
10 cans of milk

A best seller

A newspaper report on the occasion of the opening of the Berlin ARA warehouse branch in early September 1920 reported that 800,000 $ 10 packages had been sold and 50,000 copies sold for $ 50. Transfers intended for Russia resulted in almost a million parcels. The food bills were marked with the recipient's name and were not transferable. Those who wanted to be charitable without a specific target could issue a bill of exchange for “General Relief”, which ARA used to benefit people in need - anticipating the principle of the CARE packages after the Second World War .

proof

  • Frank M. Surface / Raymond L. Bland: American Food in the World War and Reconstruction Period. Operations of the Organizations Under the Direction of Herbert Hoover 1914 to 1924 , Stanford University Press, Stanford 1931, pp. 91-93 and 257
  • Hermann Stöhr : This is how America helped. The United States' Foreign Aid 1812-1930 , Ökumenischer Verlag, Stettin 1936, p. 164
  • Herbert Hoover: Memoirs (Vol. 2). The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920–1933 , Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1952, p. 22

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BANKERS TO HANDLE 'FOOD DRAFT' SALES; American Association Will Act as Agents in Relief Administration Plan. HOOVER EXPLAINS METHOD Orders for Our Supplies in Europe May Be Bought and Sentto Starving. . In: The New York Times , January 22, 1920. ISSN  0362-4331 . Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  2. ↑ $ 8,000,000 Distributed In Food Drafts for Germany . In: The New York Times , September 7, 1920. ISSN  0362-4331 . Retrieved August 25, 2012. 

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