How Things Changed In World War Two

Click here to edit subtitle

Why Food Changed In World War Two

At the start World War Two started Britain produced less than half of the nations food, the rest was imported. When the Nazis attacked Britain they came by boat and plane. On their way to Britain they sank most of the supply boats, meaning British people had to make the rest themselves. That's when rationing was introduced in 1940

Rationing

Rationing was made so everyone got a fair share of the limited food in Britain. To make that happened there were ration books. These books had coupons that were cut or scored out once used, they didn't make your food free only cheaper. At the start you could only get simple such as sugar, butter, bacon and ham, as War went on more things became accessible. Some foods that became more accessible were more meats, cheeses, eggs, tea, sweets and chocolates. Other things were rationed to like clothes and fabric and you had a ration book for them to.

Dig For Victory

Due to Rationing in the war most fruits and vegetables were hard to get and if you did get them most likely you didn't get much of them, so people decided to make their own. Majority of people were encouraged  by a very popular slogan of that time which was "Dig For Victory". Many who had a back garden or just a garden turned it into vegetable patches. For those without a  garden there were allotments, these were made from railway embankments, bombsites and public parks. Some schools grew their own vegetables to and grew what they made for lunches.

Pig Clubs

Later in 1940 some  people decided to start keeping pigs and chicken as eggs and meat was rationed, meaning you didn't get much of them, plus it was cheaper to keep your own  animal than to keep buying. That is when pig clubs started. Many joined pig clubs and started to save thing that would usually go to waste like potato  peelings, carrot peelings and bits of dry bread. They would feed the pig all these things then once it got fat enough they would kill it and di id the meat between the members. One of many reasons why pig clubs were so popular was because member believed they were contributing by not wasting anything and buying less rationed food. One of the main reasons why they chose pigs was because 1. they ate food that we would through away 2. they were easy to look after. Another reason members believed they were contributing to the war was this advertisement made by the Ministry Of Food.

                                            "Because of the pail, the scraps were saved,

                                             Because of the scraps, the pigs were saved,

                                             Because of the pigs, the rations were saved,

                                             Because of the rations, the ships were saved,

                                             Because of the ships, the island was saved,

                                             Because of the island, the empire was saved,

                                             And all because of the house wife's pail"

 


The National Wheal Meal Loaf

While pig clubs were kept up and running and helping the rationing there was an increasing problem, the farmers were running out of wheat. Consequently not enough bread was being produced for the nation so every one was encouraged  to fill on potatoes.  Advertisement  and cartoon characters were created to try get as many people to eat potatoes as possible. One of the characters  was Potato Pete. After some time a new loaf of bread was made called the National Wheat Meal Loaf. This new loaf came out in 1942. This bread was a healthier than the old bread as it was the first brown bread but unfortunately it was very unpopular among British people as they were unused to brown bread. It was very important that you liked your bread as wheat was so rare you could get fined for  throwing it away.

Ration free Meals 

Rationing, by that point, was something everyone was used to but there was ways you could eat an ration free meal. One of the ways people did this was eat out. Restaurants and chippers was the most common way of eating a rationed free meal but you didn't ea t out often as money was tight. 


Another thing you didn't have often was ice cream, as the milk was needed for the war. Oranges were also classed as treats, because they were imported you wouldn't get them often. Something they did for children in war was carrot lollies. Carrot lollies were simply carrots on sticks given to children as treats. A cartoon character that came out to make children want to eat them was Mr Carrot.