American Relief Administration

American Relief Administration

Proceeds from admissions on Motion Picture Day in 1921 went to Hoover's European relief
Founded	1919; 105 years ago (1919)
Founders	United States Congress
Type	Non-governmental organization, Non-profit organization
Focus	Humanitarianism
Area served	Europe, Russia
Method	Aid
Key people	Herbert Hoover, future president

American Relief Administration (ARA) was an American relief mission to Europe and later post-revolutionary Russia after World War I. Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, was the program director.

The ARA's immediate predecessor was the important United States Food Administration, also headed by Hoover. He and some of his collaborators had already gained useful experience by running the Commission for Relief in Belgium which fed seven million Belgians and two million northern French during World War I.

ARA was formed by United States Congress on February 24, 1919, with a budget of 100 million dollars ($1,757,000,000 in 2024). Its budget was boosted by private donations, which resulted in another 100 million dollars. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the ARA delivered more than four million tons of relief supplies to 23 war-torn European countries. Between 1919 and 1921, Arthur Cuming Ringland was chief of mission in Europe.^[1] ARA ended its operations outside Russia in 1922; it operated in Russia until 1923.