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JAN 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 1

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JAN 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 1

Food Insecurity In

Food Insecurity In today’s uncertain climate, many people suffer from “food insecurity.” Here in Clear Lake, our church and others have joined forces to distribute food to 300+ families a week. The need is obvious. We like to think that the safety nets our government provide will meet the unprecedented need, but that is not the case. The virus and associated shutdowns have devastated the lives of many of our neighbors. Thankfully, there is still food available for food banks to purchase or for charitable people to donate. What if that wasn’t the case? In the winter/spring of 1944- 45, famine and starvation struck the Netherlands. As the Allies pushed their way from Normandy into France and the low countries, there was a failure to liberate the northern provinces of the Netherlands. An attempt was made under British command known as Operation Market Garden, but it failed miserably costing many allied lives. This huge area of German occupation was bypassed, much to the dismay of the Dutch civilians. The Germans blockaded the area and flooded farm fields to starve the population. It worked. The people had no food available to eat. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard were in exile and beseeched General Eisenhower to liberate the entire country. He thought that the quickest way to liberate it was destroying Germany. The “Hongerwinter” (Dutch: Hunger Winter) started. British and American bombers still bombed German positions in the Netherlands and some of those bombers were shot down. The Dutch Resistance would rescue Allied personnel and give them perhaps the only food for miles. This, of course, was not known initially by the Americans and British, but the airmen knew starving people when they saw them. When the airmen found themselves back in England again, they made the fact that the Dutch people were starving to death known. The Queen knew this and was trying to use everything in her power to try extraordinary measures to save her people. The Dutch were surviving off tulip bulbs and not much else. It is estimated that they were consuming about 580 calories per day. The Dutch royal family finally got President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to allow allied agents to approach the Nazi general over the occupation with a plan to relieve the Dutch famine. Prince Bernard’s agents negotiated a truce with German General Johannes Blaskowitz that was approved by General George C. Marshall in Washington. General Blaskowitz was reminded that war crime trials were going to be started as the war was concluded. He cooperated and ordered that German gun emplacements not shoot at Allied bombers. The Allied bombers, in return, would not bomb German positions. This allowed “Operation Manna” to proceed. The name was taken from the Israelites and the manna that God supplied during the Exodus. The Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Corps loaded their heavy bombers with food. They had no modern pallets with parachutes as our Air Force has today, so they had to fly at very low elevations and “bomb” the towns with every manner of packaged food. The crews of the bombers were close enough to see the grateful faces of the starving Dutch people. They flew thousands of sorties and no crew member was ever the same. The notion of dropping food rather than bombs overwhelmed them emotionally. Non-flying personnel at the bases were given the opportunity to fly on the missions of mercy to allow them to experience the exhilaration of saving lives. Relieving hunger is something that blesses the giver as much as the receiver. Judeo-Christian charity was something that many members of the flight crews received in the soup kitchens of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Many of them knew “food insecurity” firsthand. Although the mission of ending the Dutch Famine was being accomplished, it would be too late for many people. Approximately 22,000 Dutch citizens starved to death. Hundreds of thousands more suffered from the longterm effects of starvation, including the well-known actress Audrey Hepburn, a child of the Dutch famine. In this season of uncertainty, let us remember those who suffer from food insecurity. It is becoming more widespread in our neighborhoods. As you grocery shop, don’t overlook the bags of food to purchase for the food banks. There are people today who are depending on “Operation Manna” as the Israelites and Dutch once did. Let’s not let them down. 38 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 39

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