CARE was founded in 1945 when 22 organisations came together to rush life-saving CARE packages to survivors of World War II. These packages contained food and basic supplies to families facing hunger and poverty in post-war Europe. As these countries began recovering, CARE’s work shifted from Europe to the developing world, including in Asia and Latin America. In the 1950s, CARE began using surplus food to feed the hungry in developing countries. Some 100 million CARE packages were sent over two decades.