An interesting facet of the British Home Front. "In Britain today, communal efforts to alleviate food poverty are well documented, with community kitchens and social supermarkets operating alongside hundreds of food banks. Yet their historical precedents are less well known. Significantly, communal feeding programmes were a fixture of Britain’s experience of total war in the 20th century. Between 1940 and 1947, for example, there existed a network of 2,000 state-subsidised ‘national restaurants’ (so christened by prime minister, Winston Churchill, who feared that the Ministry of Food’s original moniker – ‘communal feeding centres’ – was too ‘redolent of communism and the workhouse’). These national restaurants of World War 2 were partly inspired by their overlooked World War 1 predecessor: ‘national kitchens’." National kitchens: communal dining in wartime | The Gazette And some more info- National Kitchens - Wikipedia
Excellent article. Anything with food in it interests me! It's these little bits of trivia that I really take a real good look at. Was the rationing and food shortages worse in WW1 or WW2 Gordon?
It was far more extensive in WW2; only food appears to have been rationed in the Great War- Rationing in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia Here's more about the food shortages amongst the various combattants in WW1- Rationing And Food Shortages During The First World War
I see that studies show that the strict rationing during wartime actually increased the overall health of people in Britain. Not a bad side effect!
No point in wasting good groceries that will probably get dust all over it if not eaten right away I guess.
Sadly it appears that generation may be the last to experience longevity due to that diet. Mortality rate has risen the last couple of years, but there's not enough yearly data to be conclusive about its rise according to the professionals, though they are concerned. They did project subsequent generations and our love of sugar would see the trend reversed. But who can resist a good cake?
I often wonder if there's a connection between wartime food shortages and the frightening incidence of dementia etc these days, but probably not. It's another thing that's probably always been there but we've only become aware of in recent decades.
My mom tells me that on the farm, the rationing effect in WW2 wasn't so devastating as it was to city folks. They produced most of what was rationed, or traded with other farmers or family members for things they didn't grow or produce(corn, butter, sugar. They didn't have an automobile or a tractor, so gas rationing was something they heard of and didn't experience. They plowed the fields with a mule and rode to town and to church with the same mule pulling a wagon. Now Dad's family on the other hand had it a bit harder. They had a pickem up truck AND an International Harvester tractor.
I know not whether Winston Churchill attempted to name the chain of state-subsidised restaurants in WW2 'national restaurants', but that name certainly never caught on. The name in universal use, emblazoned acroos the front of each one, was 'British Restaurant'. In 1947 local authorities had the option of taking them over, when they were renamed 'Civic Restaurants'. I am sceptical of the claim that the Ministry of Food ever wanted to call them 'communal feeding centres', as that would have been a gross misdescription, implying prevalence of "food pverty" - large numbers of people too poor or otherwise incapable of feeding themselves. The actual purpose of British Restaurants was to encourage and facilitate more productive work towards the war effort. Historically, relatively few places of work had staff canteens or other facilities for lunch breaks, and going home to lunch was common. British Restaurants were able to provide a subsidised nutritious lunch near one's place of work, enabling lunch hours to be shortened. The subsidy essentially meant that the cost of the food did not include the cost of the premises. Since customers paid for their food, the question of alleviating "food poverty", as in the case of present-day "food banks" did not arise. Nevertheless, since ration books were not required to be marked when purchasing a meal, there was a side effect of enabling rations at home to go a little further, as in the case of buying a meal at an ordinary commercial restaurant or cafe.
