Children waiting on JDC/OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) milk distribution lines

These mothers receive milk from the staff of a children's health clinic. The conflicts and pogroms that took place during and after World War I brought disease, famine, and dislocation to hundreds of thousands of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Poland. In response, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), established soup kitchens, reconstructed and equipped hospitals, supported orphanages, and sent food in convoys of trucks to hundreds of towns and villages in Poland. An array of medical and sanitary programs was developed in order to safeguard Jewish health, including baby-milk stations for young mothers and their children. At these stations, babies and children could receive a glass of milk for less than one cent.