NOW don’t you wish you could look that happy if you were handed a box of raisins and a tin of cocoa.
These are youngsters at William Street School in Glasgow’s Anderston taking their share of goodies from a CARE package.
Until I researched this picture I thought a care package was simply any help given to the needy, but back in 1948 when this picture was taken, CARE referred to the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe.
Folk in Europe were still starving from the devastation of the war, and Americans could chip in a few dollars to send such food parcels over the Atlantic. Originally they were surplus war rations which the American government was savvy enough to sell to civilians.
Anyway, although most of the packages were destined for mainland Europe where food shortages were at their most damaging, some were sent to Scotland where rationing meant that many foodstuffs were not available in the shops.
A school in Anderston was probably chosen as the area was not the most prosperous, although these youngsters are very well turned out.
One story says that teenager Rosalind Russell in Possilpark received a parcel from her namesake, American actress Rosalind Russell. Wonder if any parent named their child Rockefeller just on the off-chance.
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