The FReeper Foxhole Reviews Food Rationing on the Homefront during WWII - October 23rd, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Grocery Rationing on the Homefront





World War II had a great impact on daily life in America. Among the many new realities of the time were air-raid drills in schoolrooms, scrap-metal and rubber drives, and rationing of food and other goods imposed by the Office of Price Administration.

American women, who had been called to duty in the workforce and possibly also had spouses overseas, grappled with another new hardship: grocery shopping with ration stamps. This was no easy task.



Shoppers received stamps of different colors for different types of food—some good for thirty days, others valid a week at a time but could be held over until they expired the last week of the month—and point values of foods were subject to change, so planning at home often proved difficult.



Prudence Penny's Wartime Wisdom

Thankfully, shoppers were not without help. In 1943, the 128-page Coupon Cookery was published. Its author, Prudence Penny, counsels readers how to provide their families with “sound nutrition plus appetite-appeal within the bounds of Uncle Sam’s allowance.”


Prudence Penny’s Coupon Cookery, front cover.
Murray & Gee, Publishers: Hollywood, CA, 1943.
“An investment that will pay for itself many times over in money,
time, patience, nutrition value, and good meals!” —Museum Library.

The book, which sold for $1.50, contains a number of tongue-in-cheek illustrations featuring a perky-looking, apron-clad housewife, and patriotic poetry is peppered throughout. Its dedication begins, “To the housewives of America/ those soldiers, tried and true/ who are struggling on the homefront/ to serve good meals to you!” Good nutrition is presented as the ultimate patriotic statement, as is good cooking: “U. S. needs US strong!” “Wars may come and go, but real, red-blooded American Homemakers will put up a struggle to preserve that cherished custom of Good Eating!”


It may not be convenient
But we don't admit defeat
For in spite of War and Rationing
America must eat
It may take a deal of cunning
And a bit of laughter, too
To keep the meal-time pleasant
When the coupons are too few!


To cook “Good Meals, In Spite of It All” required a little magic. — Coupon Cookery, p. 21.

In addition to advice on organizing and “s-t-r-e-t-c-hing” ration points, Ms. Penny’s book includes tables for keeping track of different foods’ point values and hundreds of recipes designed to make the most of available ingredients—for example, “Pork Knuckles in Sour Cream,” “Liver Gems,” and “Hearty Lima Molds.” In the chapter “Prudent Tips and Penny Savers,” readers are reminded that tough cuts of meat can be made more enjoyable by long, slow cooking, and learn how to substitute baking powder for eggs. Coffee, which was strictly rationed, could be stretched by being mixed with Soyfee, an unrationed coffee substitute. And through it all, of course, readers were urged to turn in cans for scrap metal.




The extreme economies suggested by this book may seem to some as antiquated as its bright, booster-ish turns of phrase and old-fashioned recipes. But those who lived through World War II witnessed a unique period in American history—when civilians across thousands of miles were unified in their actions and struggles by a single purpose. Prudence Penny’s book is an intriguing and irreplaceable symbol of that era.

Story by
Alyssa Shirley Morein

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

Other Food Rationing Tidbits



When nationwide food rationing was instituted in the spring of 1942, every New Jersey housewife became part of the World War II home front effort.



The ration book pictured here is for a five-year-old girl, Barbara Kellog, of Union City. Each member of the family was issued ration books, and it was the challenge of the homemaker to pool the stamps and plan the family's meals within the set limits.



Sugar, butter, coffee, and beef-steak were especially scarce and valued items. Home canning and the "victory garden" were added to the homemaker's concerns. Ration stamps became a type of currency, and lost ration books a major headache.


This 1943 Ration book (still loaded with stamps) was issued to Herbert Quance of Williams Street, Newark.

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THE WAR YEARS:

World War II was great for both peanut butter and SPAM.

By the start of WWII, SPAM had sold 20,000 cans. However, sales boomed when the war started. SPAM was the perfect military food. It required no refrigeration and, packed in rectangular cans, could be easily and efficiently stored.

Furthermore, beef was rationed, while SPAM wasn't. It quickly became a staple in American homes.


Advertisements claimed, "Cold or hot, SPAM hits the spot!'"

SPAM even played a part in communist expansion—though probably unintentionally.

Nikita Kruschev credited SPAM with the survival of the Russian Army during WWII, saying, "Without SPAM, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army."



Peanut butter was a staple of the U.S. military during WWII. Food was rationed and meat—aside from SPAM—was scarce. Peanut butter provided an inexpensive, high protein alternative to meat for soldiers. Like SPAM, it did not require refrigeration and could be easily stored.

Both peanut butter and jelly were on military ration lists. Some food historians credit American G.I.s with the invention of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

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Almost half of all vegetables grown in the United States in 1943 came from victory gardens.

WWII profoundly changed our nation and influenced almost every aspect of American life. The impact on gardening was compounded. From recreation to necessity, for those who remained on the home front rationing and shortages became a grim reality.



In 1941 the Agricultural Department informed the American public that if they wanted fresh fruits or vegetables in their kitchens, they should plant a "victory garden".

Average Americans, some of whom couldn't tell a trowel from a hoe, began dropping seeds in the ground. Combined with elbow grease, millions of small town backyards and city rooftops suddenly sprouted across the nation.



As of 1943 these “Sunday Gentleman Farmers” had created over twenty million victory gardens, producing a estimated eight million tons of food and nearly 50% of all the fresh vegetables consumed in the U.S.A.

While the organizers of the War Garden Commission were optimistic and looked forward confidently to the accomplishment of large results, they little dreamed that the war-garden movement would grow so rapidly. The war-garden idea struck a patriotic chord.

The American people answered the call to help win the war by producing food in their back yards with the same unanimity and enthusiasm they had shown in responding to each other appeal the country had made for service.



One reason for the prompt and eager response to the National War Garden Commission's appeal to "Sow the Seeds of Victory": was that immediately after the United States entered the war everybody was patriotically desirous of rendering help in some form.

Millions of people realized that they would never be able to take part as actual soldiers in the great task of overthrowing Prussian militarism. Because of this they wanted to take an active part in some effort which would show tangible results in the struggle for right and justice.



War gardening offered the opportunity. Although small home plots might not produce large amounts of food, such gardens made possible the saving of some of the wheat and meat and other foods which were needed by our army and which were practically the only kinds of food that could be shipped to our allies. Every pound of beef that could be saved through the growing of food at home, it was realized, would bring victory just so much nearer; and in fact, without food conservation, there was positive danger that the Central Powers would be able to have their way.



Snippy's note: I plan on covering Gasoline/Rubber rationing in another thread.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.queensjournal.ca/articlephp/point-vol130/issue16/postscript/lead1 www.wrvmuseum.org/journal/journal_ftbr_0404.htm

[snippy_about_it]

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[snippy_about_it]

Here are the recommended holiday mailing dates for military mail this year:

For military mail addressed TO APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

• Parcel Post - November 13
• Space Available - November 27
• Parcel Airlift - December 4
• Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - Mailing date is December 11 to all locations
  • EXCEPT for locations starting with ZIP 093. For all locations starting with ZIP 093 the mailing date is December 6.
• Express Mail - December 20 to locations where Express Mail service is available. Check with your local post office to determine which APO/FPO addresses can receive Express Mail. Note: This service is not available to ships.

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For military mail FROM APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

• Space Available - November 20
• Parcel Airlift - December 4
• Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - December 11
• Express Mail - December 18 from APO/FPO addresses where Express Mail can be accepted. Check with your local military post office to determine if they can accept Express Mail. Note: This service is not available from ships.

Thanks for the information StayAtHomeMother

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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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[SAMWolf]

Interesting topic, Snippy. Not something I ever went through but heard lots of stories about.

Good Night, Snippy

[snippy_about_it]

Good night Sam.

[alfa6]

Saturday Morning Bump for the Freeper Foxhole.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[A Jovial Cad]

Good morning, snippy.

Very interesting article. Just an anecdotal tale regarding this, but after my grandfather was shipped out to fight in the Pacific my late grandmother, who was pregnant with my dad at the time, moved back to her parent's home along with her sister-in-law (my Great Aunt, who is still alive today). Together, they basically dug up my great-grandparent's backyard and planted a garden quite like the ones described in this story. The hardest thing to grow in the world, my grandmother told me once, was tomatoes in Missouri. They grew beans, turnips, carrots, and anything else that would grow in that rocky soil, apparently. And that was in the middle of a rather large-sized Midwestern city. Most of their neighbors did the same.
Anyway, just my mite. Excellent story, as usual.

[Don W]

I noticed a historical inconsistency here.

While the Victory gardens etc. were a product of the Second world war, were the "bad guys" in WWII not the AXIS powers, while the enemy in WWI were the "Central Powers"?

Perhaps I'm being a bit anal-retentive, but both mis and dis information have their basis in fact.

Just an observation.

[A Jovial Cad]

Good morning, SAM.

My parent's are currently in Mississippi touring the Vicksburg battlefield, and when I talked to my Dad tonight he told me that he had the privilege of standing on the very spot where General Grant oversaw a portion of the siege from a Union field tent. He described how it moved him--it gave him those historical "goosebumps" all of us aficionado's of the past feel at such moments. The study of duty & devotion to a cause always seems to come back to those intangible moments of clarity in such hallowed places; I was reminded of the recent reports on the tours of the Antietam battlefield y'all posted here in the FReeper Foxhole.

For all you and snippy do in this regard--reminding us all of our national historical identity--allow me to again say: Thank-you.
-AJC

[Iris7]

Tires were tremendously short. Rubber had not been stocked in preparation for the War as had manganese, chromium, tungsten, and other items. The powers that be, Roosevelt cronies, said all along that we will just recycle the old rubber when we need new. Turned out it could not be done. Obvious you cannot de-vulcanise. Bunch of Doofusses.

Pretty much tires were strictly black market, criminal activity, I recall being told. Always has been no shortage of crooks. They seem to vote Democrat, naturally!

Gasoline was available, farmers had excess, and others. Not criminal but tertiary vendors, as it were.

Food rations look adequate to me. No problems except for butter that I can see. Non hydrogenated lard is a good substitute. You can live on 90% spaghetti, vegetables, and Spam and be totally comfortable. Bored, sure.

In reality not all foods were actually available, not for sale in your area. Actually the ration is generous and could have been cut in half or quarter without causing suffering if you could get the unrationed foodstuffs. That would have caused a lot of complaining, though!

The ration after the war in Germany during the occupation, American Zone, was 800 calories per day for working adults. Much worse than that in Japan. These are real hunger levels.

[A Jovial Cad]

I wouldn't presume to speak for either snippy or SAM, but I find your point a mystifying one.

It strains at one innocuous phrase ("Central Powers") that was, technically, a correct appellation on this side of the pond at the time; the disintegration of the Treaty of Versailles was a British and French imbroglio, not an American one.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the foxhole.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[SAMWolf]

Morning alfa6.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Jovial Cad.

Thanks for sharing your grandmothers experience with us.

[SAMWolf]

were the "bad guys" in WWII not the AXIS powers, while the enemy in WWI were the "Central Powers"?

You're correct about the "bad guys" in the two World Wars.

Victory gardens were also planted in WWI and the section on Victory gardens is talking about WWI and WWII. We probably should have made the distinction between the two wars in the article.

Good catch.

[SAMWolf]

You're welcome Jovial Cad.

I've had those historical "goosebumps" quite a few times. Sure is good to know there are others out there who get them too.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Iris7.

Thanks for filling in more info on rationing. We're still paying the Federal excise tax on rubber every time we buy tires. Seems old taxes never go away, who would have thunk it. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

Just heard the 10 day forecast, 9 days of rain and 1 clearing, maybe.