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In the early 1920s, Syracuse grocers might invite a customer paying for groceries to drop a measure of flour — or a silver dollar — into a barrel beside the counter. The donation would travel by railcar to the Black Sea port of Batum, then onward to Near East Relief orphanages and feeding stations. Within months, “Say It With Flour” had spread from a single retail grocers’ association to grocery stores, banks, hotels, and theaters across the country.

"Their Life Line!" — Say It With Flour campaign banner, c. 1921.

The Great War had ended in November 1918, but war and famine continued across the Near East. Near East Relief faced the challenge of feeding tens of thousands of refugees, many of them children.

The Turkish invasion of Armenia in September 1920 plunged the fledgling republic back into chaos. Led by General Kâzım Karabekir, the Nationalist army advanced quickly through the country. Kars fell on October 31; a week later Karabekir’s forces occupied Alexandropol. Russian intervention in early December halted the Turkish advance and brought a Soviet government to Armenia. The Turkish army finally withdrew in April 1921, leaving behind thousands of starving, war-ravaged refugees, many of them children.

More than two hundred thousand refugees dying between Kars and Alexandropol. Anarchy, lack of food and fuel, stoppage of all traffic, and severe winter adding to the disaster. We beg you to take steps immediately for continuation of shipments provisions by the American people to the population threatened by famine.”

Avetis Aharonian, President of the Armenian Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference — cablegram, January 13, 1921
"Buy a Barrel of Flour" poster, Retail Grocers' Association, May 1921.

To meet the demand for food, Near East Relief coordinated with business groups across the country to generate donations. One campaign in particular invited Americans to give while doing their everyday grocery shopping.

First organized by the Syracuse Retail Grocers’ Association in 1921, the campaign placed a barrel of flour on display in participating stores, with a receptacle alongside it for customers’ coins and donations of flour. Endorsements came quickly from grocers across the country.

The campaign also relied on Coin Posters — boards displayed in shops, banks, hotels, and theaters where customers could affix silver dollars in support of relief. The posters were distributed by the Globe Grain and Milling Company.

By the spring of 1921, The New Near East was reporting that flour was being contributed by the carload, shipped to Batum on the Black Sea coast for distribution throughout the region.

Using Her Star Power

Norma Talmadge was one of the leading silent film stars of her era, voted America’s most popular actress in the 1921 National Star Popularity Contest. Between 1910 and 1930 she appeared in more than a hundred films.

Talmadge lent her name to the relief effort in two ways. In the January 1922 issue of The New Near East, she praised the NER-produced film Alice in Hungerland: it “made me feel proud,” she wrote, “that I belonged to a profession which possesses the power to convey to the public, in graphic, irresistible way such a magnificent message as yours.” She also appeared in a short promotional film for the “Say It With Flour” campaign — now lost — and donated her $1,000 salary back to Near East Relief at the end of filming.

A Recipe for Matnakash

Tons of flour were used every month at Near East Relief orphanages like Alexandropol to bake bread for the children. The records don’t specify the recipe, but the bread was likely something simple and inexpensive — perhaps not unlike matnakash, a traditional Armenian flatbread still common in the region today.

Ingredients

  • 5 cups bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 2 cups warm water (about 105–110°F)
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Gradually add the water and mix until a soft dough forms.
  3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 20 minutes.
  4. Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour.
  5. Moisten your hands with water, punch the dough down lightly, then stretch and fold it four times. Cover and let rest in a warm place for another 30 minutes.
  6. Grease a baking pan with vegetable oil. Transfer the dough to the pan and flatten into a cake. Cover with a towel and let rest for another 20–30 minutes.
  7. Moisten the surface of the dough with water and make grooves with a fork, knife, or your fingers.
  8. Bake until golden brown, about 15–20 minutes.
A version of this bread fed children across the Near East — the flour that had begun as coins in a Syracuse grocery counter, arriving at its destination.
A version of this bread fed children across the Near East — the flour that had begun as coins in a Syracuse grocery counter, arriving at its destination.