Ministry of Food at Imperial War Museum

By Dan Cotter
February 11th 2010, 2:53pm

The Ministry of food was set up by Lord Woolton to promote frugality in a time when the public were facing unprecedented shortages of food, clothes and amenities, and the war showed no signs of ending.As he said:

'This is a food war. Every extra row of vegetables in allotments saves shipping. The battle on the front line cannot be won without help from the kitchen garden.'

In 1943 there were 80,000 land girls and 37,000 prisoners of war employed in agriculture. 61,000 school children helped bring in the harvest. We spoke to Jean Proctor MBE who said the women at home did all jobs related to agriculture. The full interview is here.

useful links:  http://www.iwm.org.uk/

                   http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.6574

The exhibition opens today.

Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ
Open daily 10.00am - 6.00pm except 24, 25 and 26 December
Public Enquiries + 44 (0)20 7416 5000

Comments

by Tom Norris, March 3rd 2010 16:09:48
What a time that was. Thanks for putting this up. I found it interesting and informative. Excellent interview
by Marjorie Seldon, aged 90, March 4th 2010 19:03:31
I went to the exhibition at the Imperial War Musuem after reading this article and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's so important people understand how we managed to live during the war, it horrifies me how much food is wasted nowadays, someone really should make a documentary about it...

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