The Extraordinary Story Of An Ordinary Box

In the immediate wake of World War II, 22 organizations came together in New York City to create a global relief organization called CARE. At the time it stood for the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, and it offered generous Americans a means to help mend a broken continent.

Over the next couple of decades, CARE would dispatch more than 100 million CARE Packages to war survivors and families around the world, first in Europe, then throughout Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The “E” in CARE soon changed from “Europe” to “Everywhere.” (Today CARE stands for “Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere” and operates in 94 countries.)

The world — and CARE’s place in it — has changed a great deal in the more than seven decades since those first boxes of food reached desperate families in France. Yet the same fearless thinking, agile problem-solving and swift action from CARE’s founders of that era apply to CARE’s work in this one.

Today, CARE responds to emergencies and strikes at the roots of poverty with innovative tools that can’t be contained in a box. Instead of delivering powdered milk in a carton, we help women dairy farmers in Bangladesh find the resources they need to raise healthy cows that produce quality milk. And we help link them to markets where they can sell that milk at a fair price.