EATING FOR VICTORY
UK households binned £13bn worth of food in 2015 that could have been eaten. This meant the average UK household wasted food valued at £470. Of the food thrown away, 4.4m tonnes was deemed to be “avoidable” waste. i.e. edible at some point before it was put in the bin or food waste caddy.
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Cowbridge U3A History Group welcomed Margaret Jenkins in July 2017 for an account of food rationing in World War II, an era when “a clean plate is a clear conscious” and wasting food was a criminal act; an instance of a woman being fined for throwing out bread scraps for wild birds on two occasions was described.
A National Register, similar to a census, was taken in 1939 and from this information National Identity cards and ration books with coupons were issued. Universal rationing was acceptable to the population, as it promised a fair share for all, rather than a market-led, price-based system, which favoured the wealthy.
Some goods disappeared from shop shelves for the duration of the war; Nescafé coffee, Golden Shred marmalade, and there were no bananas. There was to be a shortage of onions, as most were imported pre-war from the Channel Islands (occupied by the Germans in 1940 until the end of the war). Queueing became a way of life, especially for women.
By 1940, when a Minister of Food was appointed, the weekly ration for an adult was 4 ounces (57 grams) of butter, 12 ounces of sugar, 2 ounces of tea and 4 ounces of bacon or ham. Meat was rationed by value and only £1- 10s worth (£1.50) could be purchased; this would have bought about 1 pound weight (453.5 grams) of roasting meat. To modern eyes, this amount of food would barely suffice for a day!
Eggs were rationed, but there was a mixed reception to the dried egg powder that was imported from Canada and the USA. To supplement the amount of fresh milk available, dried milk powder and condensed milk were introduced.
Food campaigns proliferated on radio and in printed literature, offering cookery tips and wartime recipes to help housewives make the ration go further in an appetising way. Experts, such as Marguerite Patten, were employed by the Ministry to give advice and prepare new recipes. A “Dig for Victory” campaign encouraged people to grow their own food in gardens and on allotments.
Not all foodstuffs were rationed; sausages were available, but, of course, the buyer had no idea what had been put in them! Offal, such as sheep’s head, tripe and pig’s trotters, was not rationed, nor were rabbits. Horse meat and whale meat were introduced later in the war, to supplement the meat ration – no ration coupons required.
Someone had the bright idea to catch a fish, snoek, plentiful in South African waters, can it and ship it to the UK; unfortunately, as a food, it did not meet with universal approval.
Bread was not rationed during the war, but it was between 1946 and 1948, because of poor harvests. A National wholemeal loaf was introduced, but not much appreciated – it wasn’t white and it contained “wheat germ” at a time when “germs” were the organisms that caused diseases.
On 8 May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe, but food rationing continued. Some aspects of rationing actually became stricter for some years after the war. Confectionery and sugar rationing ended during 1953, but it was not until July 1954 that all food rationing ceased.
Mrs Jenkins certainly brought back memories for most of the audience of life, whether as a child or a young adult, during a period when “waste not, want not” was the ethos – so different to today’s society!
Steve Monaghan