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The Home Front in Tredegar during the Second World War A Key Stage 2 Educational Resource Pack Part 4窶認ood & Rationing
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Food Rationing
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Before the Second World War much of the food eaten in Britain was produced abroad and brought into the country by sea. After the war started, German submarines sunk many British ships. However, ships were now needed to carry weapons and raw materials for the war effort. In order to make sure that the reduced amount of food that was imported was shared out fairly, a system of buying shortage foods was introduced, which was called ‘rationing’. Rationed foods included meat and dairy products, eggs, tea and sugar. Other foods became very scarce and expensive. Right: Merthyr Express, 13 January 1940
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To buy rationed food you needed to register with a shop otherwise you weren’t allowed to buy it. People received ration books containing coupons that had to be stamped and removed by a shopkeeper each time that food, which was rationed, was bought.
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Here is the front and back of a sheet containing tea ration coupons
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Each person was allowed a limited number of coupons each week, so there was a limit to how much rations could be bought in any week. Second World War rations for one adult per week Children’s rations were half of that of an adult. Item
Maximum level
Minimum level
Bacon and Ham
8 oz (227 g)
4 oz (113 g)
Sugar
16 oz (454 g)
8 oz (227 g)
Loose Tea
4 oz (113 g)
2 oz (57 g)
Meat
22 old pence worth
12 old pence worth
Cheese
8 oz (227 g)
1 oz (28 g)
Preserves (such as Jam)
8 oz (227 g) per month
Butter
1 lb (0.45 kg) per month 2 lb (0.91 kg) marmalade 8 oz (227 g)
Margarine
12 oz (340 g)
4 oz (113 g)
Lard
3 oz (85 g)
2 oz (57 g)
Sweets
16 oz (454 g) per month
8 oz (227 g) per month
2 oz (57 g)
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This was the weekly allowance of rationed foods for one adult
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The table on the right lists average earnings for men in the 1940s. In old (pre-decimal) money, 12 old pence (written d) made a shilling (written s). 20 shillings made one pound (or 240 old pence). Whilst the maximum amount of meat allowed for one adult for a week was only 22 old pence worth, this was still a lot of money when you consider that many men may not have earned more than 68 old pence in a week!
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Occasionally we’d get a treat—Canadian sausage meat. It would be a tin holding about a pound of sausage meat, which was absolutely delicious. Around the sausage meat you’d have the fat and I remember my mother scraping that off very carefully to use for cooking. Peter M.Jones
There was a British Restaurant near to where Tredegar Library is today. It was a restaurant where you could go in and have a meal ‘offration.’ Peter M.Jones
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British Restaurants Tredegar had its own ‘British Restaurant’. These were run by the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) to ensure that people who had run out of rationing coupons were still able to eat. A meal cost a maximum of 9 old pence (9d) but no -one could have a meal consisting of more than one serving of either meat, poultry, fish, eggs or cheese—as these foods were rationed.
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In the table below, we can compare how the amount of some imported foods and drinks changed before (Pre-War) and during the war (Now).
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Some foods including tinned produce, dried fruit, cereals and biscuits were rationed using a points system. The number of points sometimes changed according to how much was available at that time. Extra allowances of milk and eggs were given to young children and pregnant women. However as shortages increased during the war, long queues became common. Prices of scarce foods were often controlled.
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A song from the 1920s became very popular during the war as people tried to make a joke out of the fact that many foods were no longer available. The Government banned the importing of bananas so shopkeepers put signs up stating "Yes, we have no bananas" in their shop windows! Yes! We have no bananas. We have no bananas today. We've string beans and onions, cab-bah-ges and scallions, and all kinds of fruit and say, we have an old fashioned to-mah-to, Long Island po-tah-to, but yes! We have no bananas. We have no bananas today!
Left: Children eating their first banana after the war!
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Recipes and Cooking
Rationing meant that certain ingredients normally used for cooking were in short supply or simply unavailable. The Ministry of Food encouraged people to try different ingredients and recipes to make the most of foods that were plentiful such as vegetables. People were urged to cut down on their food waste as well.
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Bread and flour were in short supply during the war but neither were rationed even though most of the wheat used to make bread was shipped in from abroad. To make wheat go further, the Government introduced ‘National Wheatmeal Bread’, which used more of the wheat grain, and it expected bakers to use it. It was also illegal for bakers to sell ‘fresh’ bread! Bread had to be at least one day old before it could be bought. The Government said that it was difficult to cut thin slices with fresh bread but it probably had more to do with the fact that fresh bread was more appetising and you were likely to eat more of it if it tasted better!
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Woolton pie was named after the Minister of Food in 1940. The recipe included potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower, swede, carrots and turnip or whatever vegetables were available or in season. The pie was topped with potato pastry and served with vegetable gravy. Woolton pie, which lacked meat entirely, was quickly forgotten after rationing ended.
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To encourage people to eat more potatoes, Potato Pete was created.
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Everyone especially children were urged to eat more carrots during the war because they were a healthy food that was plentiful. The "Dr. Carrot" advertising campaign also encouraged the eating of carrots.
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Carrots contain vitamin A which is important to human health. A poor diet lacking in vitamin A can cause poor vision, including night vision, which can be restored by adding it back into the diet. A story or myth developed during the war that British gunners were able to shoot down German planes in the darkness of night because they ate lots of carrots! However this had more to do with the fact that the Royal Air Force wanted to cover up its discovery and successful use of radar, which pinpointed the positions of aircraft in the sky at night!
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This story or myth that the Royal Air Force told also encouraged British people—looking to improve their night vision during the blackouts— to grow and eat carrots too! Carrots do help you to keep your eyes and vision healthy because they contain vitamin A. But eating tons of them will not allow you to see in the dark!
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Some vegetables were in shorter supply than others. Most onions were imported before the war so became scarce after 1940. People were encouraged to grow leeks as a substitute for onions. The Ministry of Food placed adverts in newspapers featuring recipes which used ingredients that were plentiful.
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Fish wasn’t rationed but there were regular shortages as supplies dropped to 30% of pre-war levels. As a result, long queues often built up at fishmongers. The Food Ministry encouraged people to eat other types such as salted fish but it wasn’t very popular!
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Tea was rationed during the war as it had to be imported from overseas. Coffee was never rationed but it was in short supply and expensive. Coffee substitutes became popular during the war. Camp coffee contained only 4% coffee, sugar syrup and 26% chicory, which was made from the root of a herb that had a similar, bitter taste to coffee. Tea rationing finally ended on 3 October 1952.
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‘Red, White & Blue’ was another popular coffee substitutes during the war. It too was a coffee and chicory mixture.
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Dried Eggs and Dried Milk! Eggs and dairy products were rationed and often in short supply during the war. Dried or powdered egg became available instead of fresh eggs!
Left & right: Two adverts about eggs in the Merthyr Express newspaper from 1941 & 1944
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Merthyr Express newspaper, 30 January 1943
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Dried milk, known as ‘household milk’, was also available for children during the war when liquid milk was in short supply.
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Sweet rationing To the great dismay of children, rationing of sweets began on 26th July 1942. The ration was just 8 ounces (227 grams) of sweets (or chocolate) every 4 weeks! Children struggled to make their ration last and chose sweets that lasted, such as gobstoppers! Sweet coupons could be spent anywhere allowing children to shop around. What does 227g of sweets look like? This was all you were allowed to have for 4 weeks!
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Due to rationing, packaging of sweets and chocolate was plain and simple, and often wrapped in greaseproof paper!
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2 adverts for sweets—underneath the price in old pence (d), the number of ration coupon points is shown
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Chocolate makers couldn’t get enough milk to make ‘milk chocolate’ and often had to use milk powder instead. Plain (dark) chocolate became the norm! Sweet rationing ended on 5 February 1953, which was greeted with scenes like the one below across Britain!
More wartime chocolate below!
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Sweets could be made at home using Ministry of Food recipes.
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Even in the war, most children still had parties on birthdays and at Christmas although they would have been much less lavish than we would have today. Mothers had to be really inventive to create sweet treats out of meagre sugar rations. The Ministry of Food produced lots of advice to help people make the most of ingredients that were available such as these below:
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Letter received by Tredegar Council from London County Council on 23 December 1940.
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On Christmas 1940, parties were held in Tredegar for all evacuees staying there. On 23 December, Tredegar Council received a letter from London County Council advising that 2 ounces of sweets would be available for each evacuee for Christmas. The sweets must have arrived in the nick of time!
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Letters received by Tredegar Council from London County Council in 1942 & 1943 about Christmas party arrangements for evacuees. This time plenty of notice was given!
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A Spade and Fork Army— Dig for Victory! Some foods including vegetables weren’t rationed at all during the war. The Government realised that farmers and gardeners in Britain needed to produce more food.
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A campaign to encourage people to grow vegetables in their gardens and allotments was launched called ‘Dig For Victory’. MP and Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Tom Williams, said on 30 October 1940:
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At Tredegar, the Council wasted no time in securing the extra land needed—allotments sprung into being almost overnight by the hundred. Despite the unpromising nature of the ground, the results were very good. Exhibitions and competitions were held in the autumn of each year which proved that excellent vegetables could be grown in Tredegar, despite its altitude, as well as anywhere else in South Wales.
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During the war, the Ministry for Food encouraged people to help harvest crops during the autumn as there weren’t enough farm workers available to do the work. During the first year of the war, a great number of potatoes were lost because there was a shortage of labour at harvest. The Ministry of Food organised ‘holidays’ for volunteers to help harvest the crops! Would this be your idea of a perfect holiday?
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In order to grow more food in Britain, more help was needed on the farms and so the government started the Women's Land Army in June 1939 as the likelihood of war grew. It was intended that young women would replace men called up for military service who had worked in farming before the war. Women who worked for the Land Army were known as Land Girls. They were placed with farms that needed workers; the farmers being their employer. By 1944, over 80,000 women worked as Land Girls on Britain’s farms.
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Women's Land Army Song Back to the land, we must all lend a hand.
Its granite and gravel and grit, You grow barley and wheat
To the farms and the fields we must go.
And potatoes to eat
There's a job to be done,
To make sure that the nation keeps fit...
Though we can't fire a gun
We will tell you once more
We can still do our bit with the hoe...
You can help win the war
Back to the land, with its clay and its sand,
If you come with us - back to the land
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The Government suggested that children could also help grow food!
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Meat rationing increased the need for people to keep animals for eating. Councils allowed people to keep a pig in their backyard. People grouped together to form pig clubs to organise feed (swill) collections. 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 housewife's pail.
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People saved food scraps and waste such as potato peelings. This was collected and boiled to feed to pigs. Almost every part of a pig could be eaten. Butter was in very short supply during the war. People made their own lard from pig fat, which they used to spread on bread instead of butter!
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Children were expected to collect acorns and beech mast for pig feed!
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During the war, 700 pigs were slaughtered in Tredegar–few of these animals would have been kept if it had not been for pig clubs. The Vale Terrace pig club sold nearly 8 tonnes of meat to the Ministry of Food which was roughly the same as one week’s ration for 90,000 people! The Constitutional Club’s pig club did even better, selling 112 pigs to the Ministry—a week’s ration for 116,000 people! In addition, the members of the pig clubs were able to supply themselves with meat as well!
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As meat was rationed for much of the war, people were encouraged to keep rabbits for eating! Rabbits could be fed on kitchen and garden waste including many weeds so they cost very little to keep. Below: A one-pot stew made from rabbit and just a few ingredients.
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People were also encouraged to keep chickens so that they could produce their own eggs. During the war, eggs were severely rationed; the allowance for one adult was only one egg per week! If you had enough space for chickens then you could get a ration for ‘feed’. Some councils organised waste food collections in their areas. Many people who kept chickens swapped any unwanted, spare eggs for other foods which were difficult to get or rationed as well.
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