# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S654
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

654 MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

this package service was greater than ever, when it skyrocketed
to 53,832 boxes. Beginning May 1, it will be necessary to limit the
sending of food packages to such as are paid for by individuals.

Clothing Packages

Already at the instigation of our Council’s vast relief measures
for Europe, it was realized that one of the major items necessary
was clothing. In a nation where only one large city escaped de-
struction, where millions have lost their homes, where fuel is a
luxury and an unpatched coat an oddity — clothing of any kind,
no matter how worn or out of style, is welcomed with open arms.

The Emergency Planning Council’s request for old clothing
was answered by our members with a spontaneity equaled only
by the food drive. Over one and one-half million pounds (750
tons) were sent to Europe in bulk form via various agencies, chiefly
through the Lutheran World Relief organization.

On September 1, 1946, it was resolved to institute an eleven~
pound clothing package service of our own because shipments of
such weight limits were more practical and more readily distribut-
able to the various sections of Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Austria, Greece, Germany, and France. Such a person-to-person
System was begun with a list of 6,000 families, Our present mailing
list runs far over 15,000 names, In the month of April, 1947, 12,000
boxes of clothing were sent to all parts of Europe. More than
4,242 boxes (24 tons) were shipped in one week alone to France,
not to mention the distribution into other countries.

In all, 19,000 eleven-pound packages of clothing have been.

sent. This figure includes the large amount shipped to the Russian
Zone as soon as that section was opened. It does not include, how-
ever, the tens of thousands of packages sent by donors and relatives
directly into European homes.

Family Adoption

In November of 1946 we were granted permission to circulate
a plea among our pastors and people to join the adoption program.
Immediate response on the part of our people was the answer to
such a plea. Day after day the list grew until more than 9,000
adopters had subscribed to the plan by February of 1947,

This system of adopting families means much more to the
needy in Europe than merely so much physical help. In most
instances a lively correspondence develops that has done more to-
wards a closer bond of Christian fellowship than is estimable from
off-hand appearance,

The names of these “adoptees” are sent to the Emergency
Planning Council by an appointed committee in Europe which
selects the most needy families on the basis of a screening process.