# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S655
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS 656

CARE Packages

More than 3,500 CARE packages have been sent to Europe
paid for by our funds. Most of these went. to the Berlin area and
were distributed by the Relief Committee of our Free Church to
people in the Russian Zone. It is, of course, impossible to estimate
the many thousands of CARE packages sent directly by individuals
of our Church to people of Europe. However, mention of this fact
should be made in this report, since in many instances, especially
where the sender was an organization of some Lutheran church,
the Missouri Synod has received credit for such gifts. -

Bulk Shipments

Outside of the regular expenditures incurred by the shipment
of food packages, the Emergency Planning Council has expended
large sums for bulk shipments. Approximately $1,500,000 worth
of food for Europe was bought in 1946. The items are made up
primarily of fats and oils, wheats and cereals, dried fruits, meats,
fish, sugar, and scores of other items. From the Purina Mills in
St. Louis, it was possible to purchase twenty carloads (720,000
pounds) of cereals at a cost of $75,000. In the spring of 1946 we
purchased $50,000 worth of wheat for the British Zone in Germany.
For a similar cost dried milk was sent to Austria, and for a slightly
smaller amount the same item to Germany. Dried milk was also
sent to Poland. Since fats are at a premium, $100,000 worth was
purchased from Copenhagen and Stockholm, where such items are
more plentiful.

Bulk shipments of food have gone to Germany, France, Fin-
land, Poland, and to metropolitan areas, such as Berlin, Frankfurt,
Bremen, Hamburg, not to itemize relief shipped to the Breslau
Synod, Erlangen University, and other organizations, or to men-
tion raw wool, which in one instance was bought with an outlay
of $200,000.

All foodstuffs and raw materials sent in bulk have been dis-
tributed by relief agencies in the specified countries which are
recognized by the Military Government as the official distributing
agencies and on which the Emergency Planning Council is officially
represented. In Germany all bulk shipments are distributed for us
through Das Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirche, of which Dr.
Eugen Gerstenmaier is Executive Director. The Rev. O. H. Peter-
sen, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Ger-
many, is one of the executive members of this committee. Their
help in the dissemination of these shipments to numerous centers
of need throughout Germany has been of inestimable value to the
Council.