Quakers
Launch Postwar Feeding Program at Herbert Hoover's Request
January 2, 1920. Nineteen Quakers from the United States arrived in Berlin, Germany to initiate a feeding program in that war-torn country. That program reached millions of people, saved many children's lives, and is still remembered warmly by those who received the food.
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| On-board Imperator on way to Germany, 1919 or 1920 |
Although this feeding program was the first official effort by the United States to address the hunger and malnutrition that haunted Germany after World War I, Quakers had been aware of the problem for several years. This is the story about what led to their knowledge.
Before the war ended, AFSC volunteers in France oversaw the work of German prisoners of war who were assigned to help rebuild the country. The French government forbade any payment to be made to the Germans, as protocol of war. However, Quakers felt this to be unfair and kept records of the number of hours the men worked and the normal wage for the type of work they were doing. For reference, photographs were taken of the men.
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| AFSC Hamburg, 1920 |
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| Child feeding in Lambrech in the Palatinate |
When the war ended in 1918, a number of Quakers visited Germany, taking word to prisoners' families about their loved ones' fates. They used the photos to identify prisoners, and they paid the families the money the Quakers felt the men had rightfully earned. For many people, that money was crucial to feeding their families in those lean months and getting back on their feet.
These trips into Germany gave Quakers an opportunity to observe conditions. In 1919 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) sent three women to further investigate conditions and prepare a report. The three women--Carolena Woods, Jane Addams, and Alice Hamilton--reported widespread malnutrition, particularly among children.
Later that year, Herbert Hoover asked the Service Committee to carry out his massive feeding program in Germany. Hoover had collected large sums of money through the American Relief Administration. This was placed at the disposal of the AFSC, and, in four years' time, the AFSC was feeding one million German children per day. Money raised from other sources aided this effort.
In an interview many years later, one of the Germans who received food in that program as a child said, "It was cocoa mainly that we were given. . . . This was warm and sweet, and the memory of that means that the early memory I have of the Quakers is of warmth and sweetness.
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| Dog Transport in Dresden. From the kitchens the food must be transported to the various feeding centers. If the distance is great, large armythermos cans are used. For shorter distances large milk cans, allowing 1/2 liter of soup for each school child. Here the method of transport is rather primitive, a boy and a dog being hitched together to draw the heavy waggon, while boys alone will draw the lighter ones. When the kitchen is large and the distance is great, motortrucks or horses are used. In Worms the fire company auto does this work. 1920 |
Also see: WWI Children's Drawings by recipients of the feeding program.
By Jack Sutters, AFSC Archivist
February 2001
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