The CARE PACKAGE®: How a box became an American icon

1946: The first CARE PACKAGE arrives

In 1945, the idea for CARE was born when 22 American charities came together to help people in post-World War II Europe. They called the organization the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE. The idea was simple: send surplus military food rations to war-torn families.

The first CARE PACKAGE boxes were delivered in Le Havre, France, in May 1946. Each package contained enough provisions to feed a meal for 10 people and included:

• One pound of beef in broth
• One pound of steak and kidneys
• Eight ounces of liver loaf
• 12 ounces of luncheon loaf (like Spam)
• Eight ounces of bacon
• Two pounds of margarine
• One pound of lard
• One pound of fruit preserves
• One pound of honey
• One pound of raisins
• One pound of chocolate
• Two pounds of sugar
• Eight ounces of egg powder
• Two pounds of whole-milk powder
• Two pounds of coffee

Americans rallied to support the war recovery in the years that followed, allowing CARE to continue to deliver aid directly to those in need. When the Soviet Union blocked off parts of Berlin in 1948, citizens eagerly awaited the “raisin bombers,” U.S. planes filled with CARE PACKAGE boxes. It was a sign the CARE PACKAGE was becoming a symbol of America’s goodwill.

As postwar rebuilding in Europe evolved, so did CARE. Missions expanded to Asia, Israel, and eventually, wherever humanitarian aid was needed. Within just a few years, the CARE PACKAGE was on its way to becoming a global icon for generosity.

A symbol recognized around the world

In the years after World War II, the CARE PACKAGE crossed oceans carrying food, tools, woolens, and other essentials. In Italy, some packages even included pasta and other familiar foods as a reminder that care could be practical, personal, and close to home. 

But the CARE PACKAGE did not remain a private exchange between sender and recipient. It was recognized in ports, train stations, warehouses, churches, schools, and family homes. Its name was emblazoned on shipping labels, translated materials, photographs, and public appeals for support. As CARE expanded its reach, the package became something people recognized before they even knew the story behind it: a plain box with a powerful promise. 

By 1946, that recognition reached the Holy See. After an official Vatican audience with CARE staff, Pope Pius XII gave CARE’s work a formal blessing, later stating that “the American people have a genius for splendid and unselfish action.” He compared CARE’s work to “the noble flame of brotherly love,” and prayed for CARE to “keep alive this flame, increase it, carry it wherever there be a groan of suffering, a lament of mystery, a cry of pain, and nourish it evermore.” 

That moment and recognition reflected how quickly CARE’s work had entered a wider moral and public imagination. The simple boxes were no longer just shipments of supplies. It was a symbol that people across countries and faiths could understand together.  

Over time, the package helped define a new language of humanitarian action. It made distant crises feel human without reducing people simply to their hardships. It invited Americans to understand their deeper connections to families rebuilding lived far away. And for communities receiving CARE PACKAGE shipments, it offered something both practical and deeply necessary: evidence that they had not been forgotten. 

What began as a parcel quickly became a global emblem of compassion, solidarity, and action — an unmistakable sign that someone, somewhere, cared enough to act. 

The CARE PACKAGE enters American culture

As CARE expanded across the world, the CARE PACKAGE also found a permanent place in American culture. The New York Times reported on CARE’s early appeal for Americans “to assist corresponding groups in European countries by sending food parcels abroad through the Cooperate for American Remittances to Europe (CARE).” The phrase “CARE PACKAGE” quickly entered everyday language as shorthand for sending comfort, essentials, and love to someone far away. Parents mailed “CARE PACKAGEs” to children at college. Families sent them to loved ones serving overseas. Friends assembled them during moments of illness, grief, or transition. Over time, the CARE PACKAGE became more than a humanitarian parcel — it became part of a shared American vocabulary of compassion. In 1962, it entered the Merriam-Webster dictionary.  

Few humanitarian organizations have so deeply shaped not only global relief efforts, but also the language Americans use to express care itself.

Presidents and world leaders embrace the CARE PACKAGE

President Harry S. Truman was in office when the first CARE PACKAGE was delivered in 1946. Five years later, he said his hope was that “CARE will continue to symbolize the American’s concern for his fellow man wherever need exists.” 

CARE’s work has continued and nearly every U.S. President since Truman has commended its work. Republican and Democrat, across administrations and across the aisle, U.S. leaders throughout the decades have recognized CARE as a humanitarian leader. 

Over the past 80 years, CARE has responded to every major world crisis and received bipartisan support for its work. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter were among those who visited CARE programs firsthand. From Truman to Obama, Presidents throughout the years have encouraged Americans to become part of the country’s philanthropic identity by sending a CARE PACKAGE. 

Responding to emergencies and helping others has historically been part of America’s diplomacy. As former President George W. Bush said, he believed “the best foreign policy showcases America’s generous heart and CARE serves as a wonderful ambassador for that spirit throughout the world.” 

From Hollywood to Main Street

As the CARE PACKAGE became a symbol recognized around the world, it also became woven into American popular culture. Hollywood actors, television personalities, cartoon characters, and public figures helped introduce new generations to CARE’s mission through posters, public service announcements, fundraising campaigns, and televised appeals. Celebrities like Ingrid Bergman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jamie Lee Curtis used their platforms to turn distant humanitarian crises into deeply personal stories audiences could understand and respond to. These campaigns helped transform humanitarian action from something abstract into something ordinary people could participate in directly — one package, one donation, and one act of compassion at a time. 

World recognition and global impact

The CARE PACKAGE did not remain frozen in history. It continued evolving alongside the world’s crises. As CARE expanded beyond postwar Europe into Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, the organization became recognized globally for its long-term humanitarian leadership. In 1949 and again in 1951, CARE was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, reflecting decades of work supporting families affected by war, hunger, poverty, and disaster. Over generations, millions of CARE PACKAGE boxes reached communities rebuilding after crisis. The package itself became more than emergency aid. It became a lasting symbol of resilience, international solidarity, and practical compassion in action. 

The CARE PACKAGE, reimagined

Nearly 80 years after the first CARE PACKAGE arrived in postwar Europe, the idea behind it is being reimagined for a world shaped by climate disasters, displacement, and conflict. Today’s CARE PACKAGE for Emergencies was designed alongside communities living through crisis, combining decades of humanitarian experience with practical tools families need to survive with dignity during the chaotic first weeks after disaster strikes. 

Inside are up to 40 carefully selected items for shelter, hygiene, cooking, clean water, lighting, and communication — ordinary objects that become lifelines when everything else has been lost. Like the original CARE PACKAGE, the modern version represents more than aid alone. It is a tangible expression of compassion in action: proof that even in moments of uncertainty, people facing crisis have not been forgotten. 

“It’s What’s Inside That Counts”

The CARE PACKAGE endured not because of cardboard boxes or branding, but because generations of people saw in it something deeply human: proof that strangers could care for one another across borders, wars, disasters, and decades. 

Across decades and continents, the CARE PACKAGE has reminded people facing crisis that they are not invisible. It transformed compassion from an idea into something tangible — something that could be held, opened, shared, and remembered. 

Because a box is just a box — it’s what’s inside that counts.