By the end of World War II, 30 million people were dead. Europe had over 13 million refugees and its cities were destroyed. Starvation, sickness and disease threatened to sweep through the war-torn continent. Unemployment was incredibly high and families that had once enjoyed a stable, middle class life, struggled for survival. In the US people wanted a way to help their European friends and relatives. No method for delivering assistance was available. The Marshall Plan had not yet been thought of, and average Americans wanted a way to personally assist their loved ones in Europe.
Two friends, Arthur Ringland and Lincoln Clark had a vision to see assistance provided to Europe. They remember how in the aftermath of World War I, Herbert Hoover led an effort to assist refugees. His program was a partnership with the American Banker’s Association. In those days you could walk into any bank in America and purchase a $10 package to be sent to a friend or relative in Europe.
Arthur and Lincoln new it could happen again. But how could they pull it off? Wisely, they approached a consortium of 22 charities in New York and proposed such a program. After months of discussions and planning, the charity agreed to support the venture and on November 27th the “Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe” was formed. The abbreviation CARE immediately began to stick, but the fledgling organization wasn’t without challenges. A well-respected corporate executive was hired to lead the new organization and after one month on the job, he resigned and boldly proclaimed the new organization would never work. Even if the American public would pay for packages to be sent, assembling them, shipping them, and delivering them to an individual would represent a huge expense that could not easily be paid for.
Undaunted, Arthur and Lincoln pressed on with the vision. Then the break that they needed emerged in a surprising way. To prepare for a long and difficult invasion of Japan, the US Government had stockpiled millions of army rations in the South Pacific. At the end of 1945 these surplus rations sat untouched in warehouses in the Philippines. Arthur and Lincoln went to work and after a few months, CARE took ownership of 2.8 million 10-in-1 rations. These were designed to feed 10 men for a day, or 1 man for 10 days. They included canned meat, dried milk, raisins, chocolate and cigarettes. The CARE package was born.
In the spring of 1946 the CARE packages went on sale and by May the first shipment arrived in France. The vision had become a reality. Then something surprising happened. A clerk at CARE’s office in New York received an order for a package, but instead of information about a recipient in Europe with a specific name and address, it simply read, “For a hungry person in Europe”. This anonymous donor, and their act of compassion, revolutionized the work of the organization and transformed the CARE package into a symbol of generosity. Soon a tidal wave of such generosity began to flow from Americans to Europeans in the form of CARE packages, not to a specific person, but to any person who was in need. Americans loved the CARE packages and eventually sent more than 100 million.
The program was so successful that it was expanded to assist those in need in Asia, Latin America and Africa. CARE is still assisting people worldwide.
Arthur Ringland and Lincoln Clark - I admire you!
