Classification scheme:
XIV-1
Note: This description is not yet complete. Although the Archives is not an official depository for Mennonite Central Committee, it does accrue the records of this organization.
Administrative History: Mennonite Central Committee began in 1920 as an inter-Mennonite relief agency to provide assistance to Mennonites in the Soviet Union who suffered enormously in the wake of the Russian Revolution and the widespread famine in Ukraine afterwards.
Over the years MCC, as it is commonly known, expanded far beyond emergency relief programs, though this remains a high profile part of its ministry. It also works in peace-making, in community development, in advocacy for the powerless, and in educational programs both internationally and within North America. Both MCC US and MCC Canada maintain offices in their respective nation's capitals.
Most international programming is done by the MCC International office in Akron, Pennsylvania. Mennonite Central Committee Canada works in some areas that are less accessible to the U.S., as well as a variety of national programs in Canada.
Each Canadian province from Ontario west also has a provincial MCC office. The Mennonite Archives of Ontario is the official depository for Mennonite Central Committee Ontario.
Many programs, such as Victim-Offender Ministries, Ten Thousand Villages, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Mennonite Mental Health Services, had their origin in MCC programs before being spun off as their own agency.