Humanitarian daily ration

Humanitarian daily rations, or HDRs, are food rations intended for humanitarian crises. Each is intended to serve as a single person's full daily food supply, and contain somewhat over 2,200 calories. They have shelf-lives of about 3 years.

HDRs are typically air-dropped into the disaster area on large pallets. The HDRs initially dropped in Afghanistan were yellow. Later, it was realized that the packages were the same color, and approximately the same same size as American cluster bombs, was also dropping in Afghanistan.cite web
url=http://www.mreinfo.com/hdrs.html
title=Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs)
accessdate=2007-07-26 [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mreinfo.com%2Fus%2Fcurrent%2Fhdrs.html&date=2008-10-09 mirror] ] Later packages were an orange-pink color described as "salmon".cite web
author=Bill Dugan
url=http://www.billdugan.com/projects/hdr/
title=MICA Flex Studio 4th group
accessdate=2007-07-26 [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billdugan.com%2Fprojects%2Fhdr%2F&date=2008-10-09 mirror] ]

HDRs are also made available through organizations such as The Salvation Army to aid victims of poverty in the United States, and were distributed during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita to victims of the disasters by FEMA.

Typical contents

source: [cite web|url=http://www.mreinfo.com/us/current/hdrs.html|title=Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs)]
* Main Entree, two of:
** Lentil or Barley Stew
** Yellow or Herb Rice
** Red Beans and Rice
** Beans and Rice with Tomato Sauce
** Peas in Tomato Sauce
** Beans with Potatoes
* Shortbread
* Fig bar
* Vegetable crackers
* Peanut Butter
* Strawberry Jam
* Fruit pastry (much like a Pop-tart)
* Accessory Pack containing:
** Book of matches (unprinted)
** Salt, pepper and sugar packets
** Packet of crushed red pepper
** Moist towelette (alcohol-free)
** Paper napkin
** Plastic spoon

Flameless ration heaters, found in MREs, are not included.

American Humanitarian Daily Ration program in Afghanistan

On October 15, 2001, The United States announced a Humanitarian daily ration for Afghanistan.cite web
url=http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive_Index/Humanitarian_Aid_to_the_Afghan_People-4072c45bad525.html
title=Humanitarian Aid to the Afghan People: Issued by the Office of International Information Programs October 15, 2001
date=October 15, 2001
publisher=United States Department of State
accessdate=2007-07-26]

On October 24 2001 Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem announced fears that the Taliban planned to poison American food aid.cite web
url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2001/10/mil-011024-usia09c.htm
date=October 25, 2001
title=Defense Dept. Says Taliban May Attempt to Poison Afghan Food Aid
publisher=United States Department of State
accessdate=2007-07-26 [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalsecurity.org%2Fmilitary%2Flibrary%2Fnews%2F2001%2F10%2Fmil-011024-usia09c.htm&date=2008-10-09 mirror] ] Stufflebeem said that since the program had been started on October 7 2001 the USA had dropped 785,000 rations.

ee also

* MRE

References

External links

* [http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/programs/hdr/hdrabt.asp HDR factsheet] by the Defense Logistics Agency
* [http://www.mreinfo.com/hdrs.html A list of menus]