Hoover was appointed as the committee's chair and, with the assent of Congress and the Wilson administration, took charge of the distribution of relief to Americans in Europe.[63] Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life."[64] By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed relief to at least 40,000 Americans.[65]
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.[66] With the cooperation of the Wilson administration and the CNSA, a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB).[67] The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute, and helped ensure that the German army did not appropriate the food. 