I enjoy learning about history, especially food history. The 1940’s was quite a challenging time from coming out of the Great Depression and into World War 2, people dealt with food insecurities and going from little to no food to foods then being rationed. It was a trying time. So, why did the government enable rationing?
During the Great Depression, most of the population did not have sufficient calories. People were grossly malnourished and many passed away from lack of food… a very sad time. The British government studied the food issues during that period and investigated food prep, storage, preservation and transport and increased research on the science of food and nutrition. When World War II broke out in 1939, the government took their findings and applied it to the nation as rationing to ensure everyone would have adequate nourishment. This meant no matter social status, or financial status, everyone would have equal access to food.
Everyone was issued ration books and allotted 16 points per month (which was later raised to 20) to ensure everyone, including the less fortunate, had food to eat. Prices were at a standard rate so everyone had the same chance to purchase food. There were a few differences between manual workers, children, and pregnant women whom were allotted different amounts of rations. Everyone had to register with their local shops so the shops could do their best to ensure sufficient amounts of rations for their customers. The proper coupon from the ration book was removed or crossed off.
Tinned goods, dried items like pasta and fruit, cereals, biscuits/cookies and a number of other items were rationed through the points system, as were clothes, shoes, appliances and more. Walking through our grocery stores today with a wide range of products makes it hard to fathom that you’d go into the shop and tell the shopkeeper what you’d like. I think that would be neat, and the grocer would get to know each family, but I simply couldn’t imagine doing so today!
Unfortunately as time went on, shortages increased. Fruits and vegetables were often in short supply, welcoming Victory Gardens. More on that in a moment.
A lot of importing was regarded as wasteful use of shipping resources, not to mention the risk of being bombed, so aside from citrus fruits, Britain increased agriculture and reduced imports. Because of the decreased imports, rationing was vital. Items like meat, sugar, fats, and dairy were rationed. Wholemeal flour was not rationed and the National Loaf was introduced for its nutrition in the UK and the Canada Approved Loaf in Canada. White flour was banned since it was regarded as “wasting” the grain. Whole wheat used 85% of the grain as opposed to removing all that for white flour, plus the benefit of the grain’s vitamins and minerals, thus wholemeal or whole wheat flour was what was available. Today, wholemeal or whole wheat flour uses 100% of the grain. Of course stoneground is best since it keeps most of the vitamin and minerals in tact, if you have access to it.
Dried eggs and dried milk were introduced and everyone was encouraged to eat vegetables raw in salads or minimally cooked to retain their nutritional value. Rationing in Britain began in early 1940, whereas in Canada, it started later.
At first, the Canadian government encouraged citizens to voluntarily ration foods, to not over purchase and to buy just what was needed. But because Canada shipped foodstuffs to Britain and helped other countries with their food shortages, we employed rationing in 1942. Our rations were not as strict as Britain’s, but was still ran similarly with ration books, coupons and limits on items.
Since many were unfamiliar with the new dried food items leaflets, books, posters, radio broadcasts and demonstrations taught the public the healthiest way to feed themselves and make the best use of their rations.
Rationing in Britain began in January 1940 with butter, bacon and sugar being the first to be rationed. By March, meat and preserves joined the ration list. Tea, margarine and cooking fats were rationed by July and cheese by early 1941. Breakfast cereals, canned fruit, cookies, chocolate and sweets, condensed milk and rice were added to the ration list, as was milk and eggs. In Canada, rationing started with gasoline in April 1942. Over the next year, sugar, coffee, tea, butter and meat were also rationed. By 1946, there was a global shortage of grains so bread was rationed until 1948 and rationing ended altogether in Britain by 1954 and in Canada by 1947. Coffee was not rationed, but was hard to come by. Offals, chicken, rabbit and game was not rationed along with some fish (a few questionable varieties at that!). Men were encouraged to fish and hunt. Fruits and vegetables were not rationed and the government recommended everyone have Victory Gardens to grow more fruits and vegetables to alleviate stress off of the stores and shops.
During the first World War, there were First World War Liberty Gardens, and during the Great Depression there were Relief Gardens plus school gardens. Victory Gardens was not a new thing but had to be encouraged once again in the ‘40s. Front and back yards, golf courses, parks and more turned into community gardens. It was a difficult time, but everyone worked together. They built community together to help one another to survive this horrible era. These community gardens were for everyone — everyone worked together so anyone could take what they needed. By 1942, the government encouraged people to remove flower gardens and replace them with Victory Gardens so people could grow their own food. This was the introduction to community gardens that we know today.
The Canadian Pacific Railway placed flower beds by all their new train stations in the late 1800’s. By the 1940s, they were changed to Victory Gardens. Not only did Canada have government mandated Victory Gardens, but so did the US, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Victory Gardens were important in Britain and other areas where the war directly impacted the importing of food.
Animals like chickens were permitted in city yards as was pigs, goats and rabbits. Those living in the country faired a bit better than those in the city but nevertheless they did the best they could in the situation they were presented with.
Victory Gardens were popular in Canada and started as early as 1940 and by the war’s end, there were 200,000 gardens nation-wide producing over 57,000 tonnes (over quarter of a million pounds!) of produce (according to cbc.ca)!! I think we need to get back to growing fruits and vegetables on our own as well as a community. I think a neighborhood garden where we all work together to grow food for everyone in the neighborhood would be such a great idea. But of course things are just different today – what kinds of challenges would there be in this type of community garden? Here in Alberta, we have a short growing season thanks to our cold, harsh winters, so growing all we can in the summer is so important. Walking around the grocery store though, I can see just how much we import today.
Not only did gardens provide food, but in the government’s “Garden for Victory: Guide for Planning the Local Victory Program” published in 1942 states gardening was a way to boost health by increasing consumption of fresh produce, save on costs by growing it yourself, and gardening provided exercise and release from war stress and strain. I think these are great reasons to promote gardening! I like to garden to get outside, growing my own food gives me a sense of accomplishment, simply knowing how it was grown and growing it naturally without chemicals, helping us eat more fruits and veggies, plus watching the garden grow and digging in the dirt is a stress reliever. I always feel good after gardening.
“Plan your victory garden now. Get your garden plot lined up. Get the advice of a garden expert if you need it. And be prepared to grow your own for victory.”
— Dig for Victory Newsreel, 1943
Britain’s rationing was a bit different than Canada’s rations. In 1942 Canada, a week’s rations looked like this:
• 4oz cheese
• 2 pounds of meat
• 1/4 pound butter
• 1/4 pound lard
• 12oz and later decreased to 1/2 pound/8oz sugar – molasses, maple syrup, honey and corn syrup were often substituted
• 1-1/3oz tea
• 5oz coffee
• milk, eggs and bacon were rationed, fresh milk was not though, unsure of allotted amounts
Monthly entitlements included 1 packet of dried milk and 12oz/350g sweets. Every 2 months, 1lb/450g of preserves/jam was allotted.
Margarine was banned in Canada until the late 1940s because farmers lobbied to keep it banned until the Canadian Women’s Institute convinced the government to allow its sale. Fats were used in the manufacturing of high explosives so there were fat salvage drives so people were encouraged to keep meat drippings to use instead of lard, butter or shortening.
People had to become inventive with meal time to be sure rations could last the week. And with limited ingredients, it was a challenge to cook up delicious meals. Vegetarian meals were had a few times a week which helped with meat rations. Meatless Fridays became popular and Meatless Tuesdays in restaurants. Bread accompanied each meal.
Reading about the rationing system was definitely informative. I think we’ll be able to follow Britain’s 1940s Rations but I’m sure there will be aspects that will be difficult, like no eating out, no pop/soda or other sugary beverages, and of course cooking and baking with limited ingredients. It will be the ultimate in frugality!
After learning all about rations and seeing our ever increasing prices at the grocery store (not to mention the cost of living in general), we have decided to do another experiment: 1940s Days! Can we do it? I know we can, but for how long can we do this for? I’m actually looking forward to finding out.
Let’s get to our rations!
Here is what we are doing for our rations:
• 2oz tea — it’s supposed to be loose tea, but we are using tea bags which equaled to 19 tea bags
• 8oz coffee — we did 4oz instant coffee and 4oz regular grounds – that’s a lot of coffee so my daughter and I will share!! Coffee was part of rations though may have been difficult to regularly purchase.
• 8oz sugar
• 2oz butter
• 2oz margarine
• 2oz lard
• 1 egg
• 4oz jam
• 1oz cheese
• 3 pints milk — we definitely need to purchase more milk so we can all have our allotted amounts – it’s actually quite a lot!
• 3 oz sweets
• 4oz bacon or ham – we are having bacon
• 3/4 pound to 1 pound meat — this could be ground meat, sausage, corned beef, pork chops, chicken and so on. If sausage was prepared with mostly bread or oats with just a little meat, it was not rationed. My girls are going to select their meat rations from the local butcher this week and I selected sausages.
• 5lbs potatoes — potatoes were suggested to be eaten everyday for their vitamin and mineral content as well as being filling.
If you would like to watch my girls and I prepping Week 1’s rations, you can click: Here
So, bread was not rationed but whole wheat was strictly available. And I am totally good with making whole wheat bread. We will have bread at each meal which reminds me of gramma — Saturday was bread day and she made a few loaves for the week. She served bread at every meal, had meatless days twice a week, and now I understand why.
And though dairy was rationed, milk was made readily available, especially whole milk, to be sure citizens were obtaining calcium. Of course those on farms faired a bit better than those on the city, especially if they had milk cows and hens for eggs. Unfortunately we do not have hens or a cow so we will purchase what we need. We use whole milk for cooking, and plant based milk for drinking.
Fruits and vegetables were not rationed and Victory Gardens were encouraged so everyone could grow vegetables and fruit to alleviate the pressure on the shops & the ration system. Sadly, it’s winter here and we cannot grow any produce. I have not had any luck growing veggies inside, so we’ll wait for summer which means we need to rely on the grocery store. We do have pumpkins left from last summer, but that’s it for garden produce. I did freeze some green and yellow beans as well as rhubarb which is helpful. Fruit may have been difficult to come by but 1 orange a week was available through ration books, provided there were no shortages. We will be sure to have our orange each week. Fruits and veggies were seasonal and exotic fruits were widely unavailable due to the inability to export because of the threat of ships being attacked, so we will not purchase exotic fruits but will eat what we currently have.
Canning and preserving, along with fishing and hunting was encouraged. We can’t hunt since it’s not hunting season and our lakes are not very good for fishing although there is fishing up North. We will not be doing either. Canning and preserving however, we do each summer. We have canned fruits, pickles, relishes and jams that we can enjoy with each meal. In 1940s Canada, you’d have to apply requesting sugar for canning. Between 15 to 25 pounds was allowed for canning and preserving.
I have found learning about this part of history definitely interesting. I have learned a lot and hope to learn more as we go through this “experiment.” I’ll add more to this post as our experience goes on or if I learn anything different I haven’t already shared.
I have researched and read about rationing for about a couple weeks and got my information from: National WW 2 Museum, The War Museum, Western Producer, Canadian Government Veteran Website, The 1940s Experiment, Canadian Victory Gardens, Canadian War Museum, CBC, Fairview Historical Society, Wartime Canada, Canadian Food Focus, Chronically Vintage, Key Military and I apologize if I failed to mention any others. Thanks to these references for giving me so much information.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours