 By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed relief to at least 40,000 Americans.The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 set off a food crisis in Belgium, which relied heavily on food imports.The Germans refused to take responsibility for feeding Belgian citizens in captured territory, and the British refused to lift their blockade of German-occupied Belgium unless the U.S. government supervised Belgian food imports as a neutral party in the war.