“Bread for Poland” (Chleb dla Polski) fundraising action was initiated by The Alliancer in the 1950’s and was widely supported by Alliance branches.

In 1957, again thanks to the initiative of The Alliancer, organizations and individuals financially helped the Lublin Catholic University (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin) to build new lecture halls and laboratories, as well as the poor but talented students of this institution.

The previous year, the Fund to Help Poland had begun. Editor Franciszek Glogowski certainly contributed to its success; after the Polish October, he travelled to Poland and, after his return to Canada, he wrote a series of articles about life in the country on the Vistula River. He also met with the Polish community and made speeches, which were enthusiastically received by his audience.

The Committee of the Fund to Help Poland was established and decided to ask Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski to coordinate the help given to Poland through the Polish-Canadian community. In this way, Polish Primate Cardinal Wyszynki’s Secretariat gave the Ministry of Labour and Social Care an X-ray machine and 29 electrocardiographs.

Medications and medical equipment were donated to many hospitals, while the cardiology department at the children’s hospital in Warsaw was fully equipped.

The most valuable donation was the cobalt bomb purchased from the Canadian government; its ammunition was sent in 1981, when construction of a special building for the cobalt apparatus at the M. Curie-Sklodowska Institute was completed.