Home Front Rationing

troops were hungry for a way to get involved in the war and use their

novel and in reality. For example, Among the necessities the war required were P-38 can opener, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water. Together, these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds. Along with the war necessities certain individuals also carried something along with them that molded their character and formed as a necessity to them. For instance,

In April of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was put into place by the U.S. Food Administration. Sugar rationing was introduced in 1943 through distribution of Sugar Buying Cards. In 1943, a new list of foods was added to the list of rationed provisions such as meat, cheese, fats, canned fish, canned milk, and

There were certain items or supplies that each soldier needed to possess that aided in their survival. Other items were discretionary or optional, not entirely important for the

food and basic materials to live affected New York greatly. For the supplies that were available,

Conserving resources for soldiers became a big deal, especially since a great majority of the people went through the depression before the war. The idea of Victory Gardens came about, growing your own food and saving to conserve food for the brothers, husbands, and sons fighting in the war. Many advertisements included products to help buy supplies for the gardens that women could keep. (Document 1) People on the homefront really believed in conservation to help the soldiers, which is how the idea of rationing began. Rationing helped families get their fair share of everything to conserve supplies and food for the people they knew fighting in the war. (Document 3) Some items that Americans rationed were sugar, coffee, chocolate, oil, rubber, metals, or anything that would be a shortage due to the pause in international trading. Even though the U.S. was in the Great Depression as the war started, the wartime economy helped to pull it out and rationing became a new normal for Americans during the

on a nationwide level, so that the war effort would always have an abundance of these items.

However, the time and reason why rationing began depended on the item. Take for example, rubber. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the war with Japan began. Then “the Japanese seized plantations in the Dutch East Indies which produced 90% of America’s raw rubber.” Thus rubber became the first non food item rationed in 1942. “The war with Japan also cut off U.S. imports from the Philippines,” leading to the start of the first food ration, sugar, in the spring of 1942. Sugar was the last item to be rationed as well until 1947 when the supply finally returned back to

Toward the end of the war, our mess halls/kitchens stopped receiving prime cuts of meat and butter. It did not mean that we were put on a starvation ration because we still had plenty to eat. They just cut out the finer things. For example, in lieu of steaks, we received lung. Margarine replaced butter. Peanut butter had been available before the reduction, but increased after May 1945. It was pretty sticky in the palate, and not all of us liked it. Since President Roosevelt had died about this time, we called it “Roosevelt Memorial Butter.”

Now, that was back then, now they have programs that are trying to make better ratios for soldiers. In “Feature, Feeding the Soldier,” they talk about what has been done with the rations in more modern times; “While some American soldiers in the field in Iraq and elsewhere may still complain about their Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, they can be assured the food packets of today are a vast improvement over the much-derided combat rations -- C-rations -- of World War II, Korea and Vietnam” (“Feature, Feeding”). “Feature, Feeding the Soldier” also goes on to say “The canned mystery meat is gone, replaced now by such entrees as the zesty Mexican macaroni and cheese and seafood jambalaya” (“Feature, Feeding”). There are people out there who have tried to fix the fact that the rations were bad. Now, they are much better.

During WW2, the United States federal government decided to start rationing as many resources as possible as to put as much as possible to the war effort. One resource was gasoline, a resource that was plentiful, but still rationed. This is because gas went with so many other goods that were rationed that if gas was not rationed, people would want rationing on cars to cease, or any other good that people had to give up for the sake of the war.

Rationing is defined as a fixed allowance of provisions of food, especially for soldiers or sailors or for civilians during a shortage (dictionary.com). In 1942 a rationing system began to guarantee minimum amounts of things people needed. During World War II, people couldn’t just walk into a store and buy whatever they wanted. Ration books are books that contained coupons where shopkeepers could cut out the coupon for the person to use. War ration books and tokens were issued to each American family, controlling how much gas, tires, sugar, meat, silk, shoes, nylon and other items any person could buy (Rationing on the US Homefront). The Office of Price

The economic impact of WWI meant that there were shortages of all produce, most importantly food. Consequently, rationing of bread, tea, sugar and meat was introduced in 1918. This was widely welcomed by the British public, as a voluntary rationing system had been introduced a year before, and people were eager to see their neighbours taking part as they were.

A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. The British Army employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food. At the beginning of the war British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. As the size of the army grew and the German blockade became more effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to 6 ounces of meat a day. Later troops not in the front-line only received meat on nine out of every thirty days. The daily bread ration was also cut in April 1917. The British Army attempted to give the

Many items were rationed during the war. Rationed means to give something of yours to another person for better use. In the present day, (today) we still give our clothes, shoes, and extra food that we don’t need and give it to people who actually need it. The items that people rationed back then were tires, cars, bicycles, gasoline, stoves, shoes, sugar, coffee, meat, fish, cheese, and typewriters. In the olden day’s couples who have babies or newborns, they have a something called a service flag. A service flag is a flag