Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

d into the warehouse at Alexandrowsk. But troubles were only beginning. The winter snows had delayed the whole A.R.A. shipping program. Food ordered in Moscow in January was still not in sight in Alexandrowsk in February. Convoyers were hurried to Kharkow, the nearest A.R.A. warehouse. On March 11 ORGANIZING FEEDING OPERATIONS Zs they brought six cars of food, worth $10,000, to Alexan- drowsk. ‘This shipment was split, half of it was sent to Chortitza and the other half to Halbstadt. On March 16 the first meal was given in the Chortitza village kitchen. The children came, with their plates and spoons, received their portions and sat down to eat. And how they did eat! It was a sight worth all the effort it had cost—the many months of waiting and planning to do actual relief work in Russia. On March 20, kitchens began operating in Halbstadt Volost and on March 25, in Gnadenfeld Volost. One of the greatest problems at the beginning of work was to keep the kitchens supplied with food after they were started. Ice in the Baltic ports of Russia, tardy plans to bring in food by way of the south via Odessa and Theodosia, and the whole shipping situation within Russia itself, had so delayed the program of the A.R.A. that it was difficult for that organization to deliver the food. On March 22, six more cars of food arrived at Alexandrowsk, and these were forwarded as soon as possible. By bor- rowing several carloads of food from the A.R.A. and the Holland Mennonite Relief, and by using part of a special shipment of flour which arrived from Newton, Kansas, it was possible to keep the kitchens going, except for several breaks of three or four days in some villages. It was not until June 14, when shipments began to arrive from Odessa, that there was some reserve in the Alexan- drowsk warehouse. Soon after that it was possible to stop increasing the number of persons fed, and to main- tain a larger margin of safety. It was constantly a question to know how rapidly the work dared be spread, without running too great a risk of having to close down what had already been begun. From the beginning in March the great need in Prischib Volost—a German Lutheran and Catholic settlement ad- 216 FEEDING THE HUNGRY joining the Molotschna—had demanded consideration. Conditions were really worse there than in the Molotsch- na. The A.R.A. was not spreading its work rapidly enough in the Ukraine to get to Prischib for some time, and in the meantime over 100 people were dying in a week out of a population of 12,000. It was decided to allocate $1000 of food to begin feeding in Prischib at once. On March 26 the organization was effected, and during the first week in April kitchens began operating there. In a few months the A.R.A. was on the ground, ready to begin feeding, and then Prischib was turned over to that organization. Early in April work was organized in Nicolaipol Volost, and in some scattered villages