One day, two years after World War II, a German POW soldier, Klaus Pütter, was being held captive in a French hospital when a plain, brown, 22-pound cardboard box arrived, a gift from Care (an acronym for Cooperative for the Remittance of Funds from the United States to Europe) containing about 40,000 calories from Germany's nearest enemy, the United States.
Inside were corned beef, bacon, liver bread, margarine, lard, apricot preserves, honey, raisins, chocolate, sugar, powdered eggs, powdered milk, coffee, flour and soap.
Despite our hunger and desperation, our first reaction was, "What's wrong? What are the Americans trying to do to us now? "
Pooter said, "
Not enough to eat every day, just a slice of bread, cheese, cabbage soup and tea (Pooter said, "Believe me, never enough to eat)" - Despite this, the German POWs argued for three days about what to do with the box.
Finally, the German army chaplain concluded, "Americans are different. They help people in need, no matter who and where they are.
In celebrating CARE's 50th anniversary in 1996, the organization presented the Smithsonian National Museum of History with a cardboard care package from 1962. It contains macaroni, cornstarch, instant chocolate-flavored drink mix, and skim milk powder.
CARE is one of the world's largest non-religious, non-governmental organizations dedicated to international development and relief, and in 1946, just after the end of World War II, launched an emergency food relief program. In the Berlin Airlift, which began in 1948, Americans purchased and sent $10 worth of packages containing food, clothing and medicine from Berlin, West Germany, in one of the largest people-to-people relief operations in history. After Soviet leader Stalin ordered the closure of ground transportation to and from the city's millions of residents,
Berliners looked to the sky for help. From 1946 to 1949, CARE carried more than 658,000 packages there, including 200,000 during the airlift.
The contents of the first packages came from surplus U.S. military rations stored for the invasion of Japan. When the Europeans ran out of those rations, CARE began sending packages it designed to contain more meat and fat to civilian families. Criticism soon followed.
The French complained that the contents were not suitable for French cuisine. The Irish insisted on meat products instead. The British wanted juice and extra fat instead of flour, which was not in short supply. One could then send Asian packages (beans, miso, and soybean oil), kosher (foods recognized by Jewish law), Italian and Greek food (pasta and various spices). There are baby and infant packages and even holiday packages filled with canned turkey.CARE has earned an enviable reputation for reputable service. Methods include Finnish reindeer, Pakistani camels and Sri Lankan elephants, as well as more orthodox transportation.
Packages with kits and sewing machines were introduced in the late 1940s to help people earn INE and bee self-sufficient. In the 1950s, CARE sent farm equipment to Europe and Asia. It also provided medical equipment and books to many developing countries.In 1966, CARE began phasing out its then-famous packages, although it sometimes reverted to tradition, as it did in Bosnia in the 1990s.
It helped municipalities drill wells and improve sanitation in the 1970s. In the 1980s, it launched primary care programs, such as oral rehydration therapy for people with diarrhea. Starting in 1990, CARE provided family planning services at nearly 300 clinics.
Since 1998, CARE has provided shelter and repair materials, helped farmers restore farm productivity, and assisted with mine awareness and demining programs in Kosovo.CARE manages eight refugee camps in Macedonia, housing 100,000 refugees. It has distributed 80,000 blankets, 40,000 mattresses, 11,000 plastic sheet s, 1,000 stoves and 6,500 kitchen sets.
Recently, CARE has changed its name to "The Cooperative" and seeks help and relief from around the world, no longer drawing solely from U.S. soil. Nine other industrialized countries have established CARE under the leadership of the International CARE Federation, a global movement covering 68 developing countries, and the criteria for determining CARE's presence in each country include gross national product per capita, infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, life expectancy at birth for under-1 mortality rate, nutritional status of vulnerable populations, proportion of population with access to safe drinking water, literacy rate, and the proportion of people with access to safe drinking water. The criteria include GNP per capita, infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, life expectancy at birth for children under 1 year, nutritional status of vulnerable groups, proportion of population with access to safe drinking water, literacy and unemployment rates. The term "care package" is a registered trademark and the organization does not endorse its use by companies. However, the care package has become a cultural symbol, a symbol of global generosity and part of the Native American language. College students receive "care packages" from their families during exam periods, and children at summer camps indulge in "care packages" of chocolate cake from their mothers.
A 1962 note written on a Smithsonian package summed it up well, "It is the hope of all Americans throughout the world that our efforts to share the bounty of food will encourage free men throughout the world."
By Carolyn Hughes Crowley"