United States
Herbert Hoover
1874–1964 Chairman, Commission for Relief in Belgium; US Food Administrator
A self-made mining engineer and millionaire, Hoover was in London in August 1914 helping stranded Americans return home when he was asked to organize relief for German-occupied Belgium. The Commission for Relief in Belgium, which he ran from October 1914, bought and shipped food from the neutral world and fed about nine million people in Belgium and northern France for four years, negotiating with both the German and British governments. When the United States entered the war, President Wilson put him in charge of the Food Administration, where he promoted voluntary rationing through slogans such as 'Food will win the war' and the so-called 'Hooverizing' of American kitchens. He became US president in 1929.