A Letter From The Publisher, May 13, 1946

If you have been wondering what you can do individually to help alleviate the famine conditions abroad, you will be interested in the following letter, which came to TIME last week:

Sirs:

Week after week I read, with an ever increasing sense of angry helplessness, the dreadful reports coming out of Europe of famine and disease, of children dying like starving animals. . . . Through the Foster Parents’ Plan for War Children I am taking care of a Belgian child, but it isn’t enough—it simply isn’t enough. . . .

My idea is this: let every TIME-reader who, as I do, gets sick at heart with helpless fury, give $10 or more (or less, according to his circumstances) to a TIME-appointed committee. . . . Let each TIME-reader pledge himself or herself to buy and ship to New York a box of groceries a month. Maybe TIME’S readers couldn’t feed all the people who are starving, but they could make a stab at it and perhaps force further action on the part of Congress. I send $10 to start the ball rolling. . . .

We must do something! We simply cannot stand by and see this horror grow. . . . For those starving children won’t forget who stood by and let them starve. I don’t want to stand by; I want to HELP.

So many of you have written to us in this vein recently, asking what you could do individually to help, asking us to forward your personal gifts to the right agency, that I would like to pass on to anybody who wants it the information we have given to those of you who wrote in.

It goes without saying that the first thing Americans can do to provide food for the hungry peoples of the world is to eat less food, especially wheat products, fats and meat, buy less food, and let their representatives in Congress know how they feel about it.

Beyond that there are numerous agencies set up to receive individual contributions and send them to the people who need them. Some, like the American Friends Service Committee, 20 South 12th Street, Philadelphia 7, Pa., and similar church groups make it possible for you to send gift packages regularly to a specific family. Others, like United China Relief, 1790 Broadway, New York 17, N.Y., are dedicated to helping individual countries.

A new organization, CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) 50 Broad Street, New York 4, N.Y., accepts money for shipping food in bulk to Europe. It also has application blanks, available at any U.S. bank, which, when filled out and sent to CARE together with a check or money order for $15, provide for the shipment of one 30 Ib. food package to a European family.

Each contributor is given a receipt and, in the event that his food package is not delivered, his money is refunded.

This week the Famine Relief Collection Drive, of which Commerce Secretary Henry A. Wallace is chairman, is scheduled to get under way. It is out to get all the cash (preferably) and canned food it can. It will work with the UNRRA organization, designating depots throughout the U.S. for assembling canned foods, and its national headquarters will be in the UNRRA offices at 100 Maiden Lane? New York 7, N.Y., where cash contributions will be gratefully received (checks should be made out to Lee Marshall and addressed to Emergency Food Collection).

If you prefer, TIME will continue to forward your cash contributions to any agency you choose, or to one of our own choosing.

Cordially,