American Relief Administration 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 United States Food Administration, also headed by Hoover. He and some of his collaborators had already gained useful experience by running the Committee for Relief in Belgium which fed seven million Belgians and two million northern French during World War I.
ARA was formed by US Congress on 24 February 1919 with the budget of 100 million dollars. 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. ARA ended its operations outside Russia in 1922; in Russia it operated till 1923.
Read more about American Relief Administration: ARA and Poland, ARA and Russian Famine of 1921
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