Establishing the Food for Poland Fund and the First Years of its Work (1980-1982)

Abstract

The economic crisis that hit Poland at the beginning of the 1980s stimulated Polish emigration circles in Great Britain to organize charity aid for Poles living under the yoke of the Communist power. In 1980 on the initiative of Tutiola and Albin Tybulewiczs the organization Food for Poland Fund was established in London. Its task was to organize transports of necessities for Poland. Commencing the work of the fund received a warm welcome both from the Polish postwar emigration and from the British. The initiative was publicized by English journalist in numerous newspapers and periodicals and on many TV channels. In Poland redi­stribution of the donations was coordinated by the Katowice Bishop Czesław Domin who headed the Charity Commission of the Episcopate of Poland. The transports were sent to the main Polish cities, among them being Krakow and Lublin. The imposition of martial law in Poland in December 1981 motivated the fund to aid Poland even more intensively, and most of the British media popularized the idea.