In January 1940 some foods were rationed. It was due to the Germans bombing food ships and stores. Only food that was available for everyone was on ration...

Along with a weekly ration, there was a coupon or points system, 16 coupons were given to each person per month and they could spend these as they wished. The foods on ration still had to be paid for but the point was there was enough for everybody if it was fairly shared out.

Shops were told to fix their prices in line with government guidelines so nobody went hungry. This was a lesson learnt from the First World War when many shops made their prices so high that only the rich could afford them.

As a lot of British men were in the forces this meant that women had to go out to work, as well as doing the shopping, cooking and cleaning! This in turn affected the household income and was the beginning of hard times for most families...

But if the food was carefully shared and inspiringly cooked, it wasn't that bad! A lot of families grew their own vegetables.
To find out more click on the carrot
Rationing in some ways was good. It meant everybody got their fair share of what was available and for some poorer people it meant they were getting more food during the war than before. People were better educated about food as the government campaigned for the public to eat more vegetables. They also provided cod liver oil and orange juice for children.

This is what a well stocked larder would look like during war time. Not all would be like this but notice it has lots of things to make the dull food a bit more interesting... Notice the pack of dried eggs. You would mix water with these to make an egg mixture. What do you think they tasted like? Women would put them in cakes and puddings and disguise them as best they could!

Things like fish were never rationed, as they were virtually unobtainable, and if they were for sale you would have to queue, sometimes for hours with no promise of getting what you queued up for!
Before the war there was a survey done on the health of the nation which showed that 1/4 of the nation was undernourished! It also showed:
· 1/2 working class women were in poor health
· 80% of under fives had some bone abnormality
· 90% had badly formed or decayed teeth
So as well as rationing the Ministry of Food had a chance to improve the nation’s health. Pregnant and nursing women and babies got special supplies of milk, cod liver oil and orange juice.

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