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The Great War and the Food Pledge


On April 6, 1917 the United States went to war. During the Great War Americans would be called on to give their sons and daughters to the cause, to conserve food and to donate money among other things.  Total war would demand a total commitment to fight that war. (Pifer, 2017)

Food conservation was necessary for several reasons.  In the US there had been a problem with poor grain harvests in the years leading up to the war.  The fighting forces would need food as they were mustered and trained in the US and sent overseas to fight.  The Allies were starving after suffering through years of war and food needed to be sent to them.  In order to meet these demands food conservation became the responsibility of every American.  In order to meet this responsibility every woman was asked to sign a Food Pledge.  

Pifer (2017) explains the elements of the Food Pledge.  Americans were to eat one wheatless meal per day, eat beef, mutton and pork only once a day and in smaller portions.  The homemaker could replace these meats with chicken, eggs or fish.  To us now, replacing a beef or pork dish with chicken would be no sacrifice, but this was not the custom of the time and would have been a real sacrifice for these families who had these meat products at least in two meals a day, if not three, and felt that eating pork and beef was a requirement for good health.  

Other components of the plan included saving milk for children. The homemaker was to conserve butter by using other fats in cooking.  Sugar was to be used sparingly.  They were also requested to "shop local" in order to save transportation costs and fuel for the war effort.  Drying and canning local fruits and vegetables were encouraged as was planting a garden on any available patch of land. 

The Janesville Gazette published articles to encourage the homemaker to follow the food pledge.  These included menus that conformed to the Food Pledge. 

This article dated November 5, 1917 (page 7) proposes a menu for a wheatless day and another for a meatless day.  Serving potatoes in ways other than frying is also suggested with directions for those variations given.  

Of course, people balked at these restrictions (surprise, surprise!).  Restaurants were reported for not maintaining the food pledge and as were societies and clubs that held regular meetings where food was an integral part of the gathering.   

After the Food Pledge was signed a card was given to be displayed in the window of the home.  Often the pledge was sent home with school children to be completed.  In some areas women went door to door to solicit the signatures of their neighbors.  It was an all-out, nationwide effort.  I wonder how we would fare in getting that kind of cooperation today.



Pifer, Richard L. (2017). The Great War Comes to Wisconsin: Sacrifice, Patriotism, and Free Speech in a Time of Crisis, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Madison, WI.

Image from: Stahr, P. (1918). Be patriotic--sign your country's pledge to save the food/Paul Stahr.  United States, 1918. [New York: The W.F. Powers Co. Lith.,?], Photograph, Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/96515511/, Accessed 4 APR 2021.



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