I have heard the story about the RC selling coffee and donuts to soldiers too. I don't think they were in dire need at the time. What kind of dire need would there ever be for coffee and donuts? Soldiers seemed to prefer the USO back then because they were not charged.

Oddly, my understanding is that the USO operated mostly off of donations from soldiers. I guess they did not mind paying as long as they were not charged.

In the old brown boot Army in which I served (early 60s), you were always in dire need.....

Thanks for the insight...

I've heard this and looked this up on snopes.com - http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/redcross.asp Quote:
"There is truth to one of the rumors, however. During WWII the American Red Cross did indeed charge American servicemen for coffee, doughnuts, and lodging. However, it did so because the U.S. Army asked it to, not because it was determined to make a profit off homesick dog faces."

It goes on to explain that Allied soldiers were being charged by their Red Crosses (British, Australian etc), and Secretary of War Stimson felt that would create animosities among allies. So for the good of the Alliance, the Red Cross charged nominal fees for donuts etc - even though they didn't want to. That created animosities among GIs that Gen Eisenhower tried to smooth over. Too bad Ike didn't have the furnace of the Internet to respond to what must have seemed like a pretty petty practice, and may have seemed demeaning to servicemen too.

So just a couple reminders: the Red Cross doesn't charge for any assistance - its a charity that receives its funds from a generous American public. Nowadays volunteers strive to be good stewards of the donated dollars, no wasting them, but not withholding necessary assistance either. Its all free of charge.

The Red Cross is different in every nation - there are hundreds of International Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations in nearly every country of the world, all operating according to the same mission. Nation by nation they tend to provide very different things - ambulance service is popular in the UK whereas in the US we mostly have fire departments dispatching assistance. And your American Red Cross is community based - its organized by counties, or in sparsely populated places like Nebraska, the local chapter can represent several dozen counties. Personally I think the local organization is most responsive to local needs, and services local disasters best. And the national Red Cross can rally together for larger disasters like Sandy, and even lesser ones that can overwhelm like earthquakes and wild fires in California.

I'm sorry WWII GIs were asked to pay for Red Cross donuts and coffee. If they had known where the order came from, they might have spent their after years cursing the GD US Army rather than the GD Red Cross. We sometimes get donated donuts from Krispy Kream, and nowadays they're always free.

Let me give a big shout out to some of the other disaster response organizations that don't always get recognition unless you've seen them in action, or received their assistance: the Southern Baptists operate massive field kitchens to feed everyone, and there are probably a dozen other organizations that do it as well even if not to the same extent. The Salvation Army is huge in terms of recovering people to their pre-disaster state by doing things like sorting clothing and providing it to folks affected by disasters. There are lots of great people who get their hands dirty mucking out flooded houses or rebuilding structures, again all labor free of charge. In fact there are so many good people who just jump in and do the hard work, in my mind it tends to eclipse what we in the Red Cross can do. The Red Cross couldn't do what it does without all these other organizations. We have a formal role granted by the federal government (without any govt funds to go along with it) to restore housing and sheltering folks after disasters, but we could never do it alone. The volunteer effort is certainly very strong in America.

Funny you mention gourmet chocolates - a fellow volunteer put Theo's Chocolates on shelter cots belonging to kids after a local apartment fire. Strictly speaking I suppose it would have been better to have enough chocolates for every shelter resident, but given the focus on kids put out by fires, no one raised the issue.

Bravo! That is definitely a good move...I agree with you about volunteerism in our country. Let's hope the spirit endures.