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HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
ARCHIBALD MACMECHAN, F.R.S.C.
DIRECTOR
HALIFAX, N. S.

Under the leadership of the members of this community, 6,000 people were housed during the week following the disaster. In the meantime, generous offers were received from towns throughout the Province to take many of the homeless. The list on file showing that shelter was offered to 5,000 persons by the generous people of the Maritime Provinces and even as far as Montreal.
To keep pace with the urgent needs of the sufferers required not only working practically all the working hours of the ordinary business man's day, but the sacrifice of many hours which were normally devoted to sleep. Nor was this all, for speed and system were required in its highest sense to meet the demands, and eliminate as far as possible any overlapping in the work. It must be borne in mind that this WAS accomplished, and done, as before mentioned by men who had no precedent to go by and nothing to guide them except their own indomitable courage to meet the situation squarely face to face, and by superhuman efforts to conquer where the slightest hesitancy, inefficiency or lack of attention to detail would have spelled disaster and perhaps death to their fellow citizens. All of which was accomplished by workers who received for working seven days a week without respite and often without regard for the proper nourishment - not one cent.

Distribution of Food.
The question of supplying food to those in need was in charge of J. L. Hetherington, H. R. Silver, H. G. Bauld, C. V. Monaghan, H. E. Mahon, Adjutant Hurd and J. J. Penny. In order to meet the vast demand, depots for the distribution of supplies were established at the City Hall, the Armouries, St. Matthias' Hall, Oddfellows' Hall, Agricola Street, and the Alexander Mackay school.
From the sixth to the tenth of December, the supplies were purchased locally from wholesalers and then the situation was relieved by the arrival of relief supplies from outside points. Every day food was distributed to approximately 3,000 families. Food was in many cases sent to those who through disability were unable to call for supply. The great object was to see that no one was allowed to go hungry. This committee distributed $60,000 worth of food purchased from local warehouses, and some $140,000 worth of food from outside donations. Among the principal items given out were: 79,000 loaves of bread, 1,300 bushels of potatoes; 49,000 pounds of meat and 39,000 pounds of fish.
The members of the Food Committee also supplied their invaluable services gratis, and faced with a gigantic problem were compelled to give their personal supervision to many of the minor points in the work. The work of purchasing thousands of dollars worth of supplies was one which demanded the finest sense of the needs of the human system. Proper proportions had to be kept in the foods given out in order to give those applying for relief the greatest possible amount of nourishment for the least expenditure. There was no room for haphazard buying, in order that the health of the community could be kept at the highest mark. All of the foregoing details were carefully attended to by the corps of willing workers, who not only gave their time, but even in some cases their money, that all might be fed; and like the committee before mentioned received - not one cent.
Many with obstructionist suggestions and mean implications held up to light isolated examples of fraud which occurred. This they forgot to note was not the fault of the overworked committee, but was due to the inherent dishonesty of a few penurious and unprincipled members of the community; who literally took the food of the genuinely needy with the brazen assertion that they were going to "get while the getting was good."
Under the order system the committee issued up to January 17th, 1918, 4,728 orders valued at $36,050.75 which supplied 1,686 families, consisting of 3,493 adults and 3,683 children.

The Clothing Committee.
Next to food and shelter was of course the question of clothing, and in those days immediately following the disaster there was no doubt many who had ample cause to bless the generous hand with which these supplies were handed out by those in charge. Here again for several days after the explosion the slogan of the Committee was "see that no one suffers for lack of anything."

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MG 1 vol 2124 number 292a