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 organizations,
in public works, such as draining, ditching, constructing embankments
and building sewers.
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