GIFT FOODS FOR BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24899, 12 June 1946, Page 5

GIFT FOODS FOR BRITAIN

jO PER CENT. REACH POOR AND NEEDY

DISTRIBUTION ARRANGEMENTS

The distribution in Great Britain of sifts of foodstuffs ''from the generous Jennie of the Dominions and colonies" E the Ministry of Food is explained in a letter received by Mrs M. H Mowbray-Tripp from her successor as ksistant commissioner of the New Hand Red Cross in London (Miss Violet A. Russell. 0.8. E.). Miss Rus„n obtained the information from the Ministry at the request of Mrs Mowconsultation with representatives of the Dominions and colonies in London a scheme was devised last year hr which the Ministry's overseas gifts (food) allocation centre arranged for gift foodstuffs to be distributed throughout the United Kingdom as follows'— <a> hospitals, sanatoria, homes for the blind, cripples mentally deficient. etc.; (bl charitable institutions, inclu'dine homes for children and for aged peonle: (c) workers’ rehabilitation centres: <d) poor and needy oeonle (including old age pensioners and persons living alone) through local authorities throughout the countrv. “The last group receives 70 per cent. o f all consignments, and by this means ft is hoped to reach those people in real need of assistance and additional nourishment.’’ wrote the Ministry. “Expenses on all gifts, consigned for distribution by the centre, from freight on board at loading port to delivery trt the recipient, are paid by the Ministry AU gifts are distributed absolutely free of charge, without the surrendering of coupons, and in addition to the rat*°Recipients were always informed from whom the gifts had come, and already donors overseas had received many individual letters of thanks, giving, the Ministry hoped, in some small measure evidence of the pleasure with which the gifts had been weliomed. Any foodstuffs of a non-nerishable nature were very acceptable, as the centre has not the machinery to cone with perishable goods, such as butter, meat. etc. which were not tinned. It was of great assistance if bills of lading and details of consignments, together with a note of any special brandings or markings, could be sent by air mail to the centre before the arrival of the gifts in the United Kingdom “The magnificent response by our friends overseas to the various apneals is beyond all praise.” wrote Mrs N. S. Mudie. of the centre, to Mi c s Russell, “and the kindly thought which prompts the sending of these snlendid gifts will go far in strengthening the bonds of friendship between the peoples overseas and this country.”