The first CARE packages
CARE was set up in the USA in 1945 to respond to the devastation and scarcity brought on by World War 2. Originally, Americans paid $10 to send a ‘CARE package’ to someone in Europe. These packages contained 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.
Global expansion
CARE has grown a lot since then, expanding our remit beyond immediate and short-term relief to more long-term assistance in the form of recovery and rehabilitation. Today, 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.
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The story of aid in a CARE package
CARE was first set up in 1945 to send ‘CARE packages’ from people in the USA to people in Europe recovering from World War II.
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“It was a red letter day when packages arrived”
CARE was set up in the USA in 1945 to send ‘CARE packages’ of food and other essential supplies to people in need in Europe after the end of World War 2. Gillian Roberts was one of the original recipients of these first CARE packages.
