When the end of the Second World War in Europe was announced 80 years ago on 8th May 1945, the streets of Britain were filled with people celebrating what we now know as ‘VE Day’. Victory had come at last, and the relentless bombing was over.
Yet for many families, life was still very tough. Strict rationing remained in place for years, and an uncertain economic climate meant that lots of Brits struggled to put enough food on the table.
The origins of the CARE package
CARE launched that year in the USA to respond to the desperate needs across Europe. Americans paid $10 to send a ‘CARE package’ containing food and essential supplies, like canned meats, powdered milk, coffee and chocolate.
These small acts of kindness were an early form of international aid – delivered not just by governments but by individuals to people in need across the world. For the families who received a CARE package it represented goodwill and a message of hope, delivered from someone far away with a simple human desire to help them.
Tim’s story: A package arrives in Wiltshire
During the first two years, 6.6 million packages were sent, 400,000 of them to England. Tim Thomas – now 84 – recalls receiving a CARE package in Warminster, Wiltshire. We had the pleasure of meeting Tim in our UK office and hearing first-hand about the impact of receiving a CARE package while living on strict rations:
“We were very poor and like millions of other British people we were on strict rations. It is almost incomprehensible today to conceive of living off 800 calories per day.
“The arrival of the food parcel was a red-letter day in our family. Much of the contents I had never heard of before let alone eaten. My memory is vivid of the arrival of a ham. I was dumbfounded by the smell which I recall even to this day. What was it? Where did it come from? Which animal produced it…? For some reason I have particularly clear recollection of muslin. I am not sure if it was just the ham which was wrapped in it or whether the whole parcel was similarly packaged. I would have been about 3 or 4 years old at the time.
“The kindness of strangers in the post-war era made a huge difference personally to my family and many others. Receiving a CARE package, filled with delicious foods the likes of which I had never seen before, was marvellous. If that whole period has left me with anything, it’s the feeling that a total stranger held out his hand in generosity when we needed help.”
Then and now: CARE’s work today
CARE has come a long way since 1945. What started out as a simple food package has evolved into a wide range of programmes – from education for girls and humanitarian aid, to investing in women leaders. 80 years on, we are a global network of partners working in over 100 countries to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.
But the spirit of human kindness, present in those first CARE packages all that time ago, remains at the heart of everything we do.
