Meals for Millions Foundation

The Meals for Millions Foundation of Los Angeles was a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of hunger in the world through "three-cent meals;" the plan was formulated by Clifford Clinton (of Clinton Cafeterias of Los Angeles), who, with the assistance of Dr. Henry Borsook of the California Institute of Technology, organized the Foundation in 1946; its basic product was Multi-Purpose Food (MPF), a tasteless additive that could be mixed with virtually anything to provide one-third of the daily vitamins, minerals, and protein needed by the average adult; after the Foundation began to change course in 1965, executive secretary Florence Rose resigned, and became associated with Investors Overseas Services until her death in 1969; in 1979 the Foundation merged with the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation.

Meals for Millions Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the prevention of starvation, was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1946 as a means of producing and distributing "Multi-Purpose Food", a nutrient-rich, nonperishable food suitable for mass feeding at the lowest possible cost. Multi-Purpose Food (MPF) was developed in three formulas to meet the needs of many different cultures: spicy for meat based diets; unseasoned for grain, non-meat, diets; and Formula C, unseasoned containing milk solids for infant nutrition. Recipes utilizing MPF were disseminated in many languages, enabling local populations to reproduce the diets they were accustomed to by substituting MPF for scarce meat, eggs and other protein sources. MPF was also distributed in the United States to Native Americans living in poverty.

Biography

The Meals for Millions Foundation of Los Angeles was a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of hunger in the world through “three-cent meals”; the plan was formulated by Clifford Clinton (of Clinton Cafeterias of Los Angeles), who, with the assistance of Dr. Henry Borsook of the California Institute of Technology, organized the Foundation in 1946; its basic product was Multi-Purpose Food (MPF), a tasteless additive that could be mixed with virtually anything to provide one-third of the daily vitamins, minerals, and protein needed by the average adult; after the Foundation began to change course in 1965, executive secretary Florence Rose resigned, and became associated with Investors Overseas Services until her death in 1969; in 1979 the Foundation merged with the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation.

Biographical Narrative

The Meals for Millions Foundation of Los Angeles was a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of hunger in the world through “three-cent meals.” The plan for such a program was formulated by Clifford Clinton (of Clifton cafeterias in Los Angeles), who, with the assistance of Dr. Henry Borsook of Caltech organized the foundation in 1946. The basic product of the foundation, known as Multi-purpose Food, was a tasteless additive that could be mixed with virtually anything. Developed by Dr. Borsook, MPF was said to provide one-third of the daily vitamins, minerals, and protein needed by the average adult.

Shortly after setting up the Foundation, Clinton brought in Florence Rose and Ernest Chamberlain to be co-directors and take over the day-to-day management. This collection or archive consists primarily of the office and personal files of Miss Rose, most of which she rescued from destruction when Meals for Millions began to change course in 1965. Florence Rose left the Foundation at that time and was then associated with Investors Overseas Services until her death in 1969.

The collection came to UCLA indirectly (via Smith College) from Ernest Chamberlain, close friend and confident of Miss Rose. The files have been alphabetically listed and their arrangement retained as originally filed. Consequently, a great deal of duplication exists throughout and the interrelationships of materials are often cloudy at best.