Belgian was 250 grams of bread per day. This seems rather small, but the
figure was established by Horace Fletcher, the American food expert, who
was one of the members of the commission.

Mr. Fletcher also prepared a pamphlet on food values, which gave recipes
for American dishes which were up to that time unknown to the Belgians.
He soon got not only the American but the Belgian committeemen talking
of calories with great familiarity.

Some of the foods sent from America were at first almost useless to the
Belgians. They did not know how to cook cornmeal and oatmeal, and some
of the famished peasants used them as feed for chickens. Teachers had to
be sent out through the villages to give instructions.

A great deal of difficulty developed in connection with the bread. The
supply of white flour was limited; wheat had to be imported, and milled
in Belgium. It was milled so as to contain all the bran except ten per
cent, but in some places ten or fifteen per cent of cornmeal was added
to the flour, not only to enable the commission to provide the necessary
ration, but also to keep down the price. As a result the price of bread
was always lower in Belgium than in London, Paris or New York.

Much less trouble occurred in connection with the distribution of bread
and soup from the soup kitchens. In Antwerp thirty-five thousand men
were fed daily at these places. At first it often occurred that soup
could be had, but no bread. The ration of soup and bread given in the
kitchens cost about ten cents a day. There were four varieties of soup,
pea, bean, vegetable and bouillon, and it was of excellent quality.
Every person carried a card with blank spaces for the date of the
deliveries of soup. There were several milk kitchens maintained for the
children, and several restaurants where persons with money might obtain
their food.

It was necessary not only to fight starvation in Belgium but also
disease. There were epidemics of typhoid and black measles. The
Rockefeller Foundation established a station in Rotterdam called the
Rockefeller Foundation War Relief Commission, and some of the women
among its workers acted as volunteer health officers. People were
inoculated against typhoid, and the sources of infection traced and
destroyed. Another form of relief work was providing labor for the
unemployed. A plan of relief was drawn up and it was arranged that a
large portion of them should be employed by the communal organization