Dig for Victory

With the start of the Second World War in 1939, Britain imported nearly 70% of its food. This included nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of grains and cereals. The supply chain had been cut off due to the  Nazis sinking ships bringing imports to the country. The result was: Britain needed to grow more of its own food. The ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign was set up within a month of the start of  WWII by the British Ministry of Agriculture. The start of rationing meant men and women across the country were encouraged to grow their own food to supplement their meager rations. Empty spaces, including backyards, public parks, and even the lawns outside the Tower of London were turned into vegetable patches.  A massive propaganda campaign was created to ensure that people had enough to eat, and that morale was kept high. The Dig for Victory campaign proved very successful, and by 1943 over 100 million tons of fruits and vegetables were now being grown in Britain!

Above: Girl Guides at work on their hospital allotment producing vegetables in November 1942; propaganda posters promoting the “Dig for Victory” campaign.

Imagine never having seen, or eaten, a banana? If you were a child born in the days of World War II in Britain, this would not have been uncommon. Imported fruits were hard to come by due to rationing; the unavailability of “exotic” fruits due to the wartime bombing of ships prevented these items arriving safely at their destination. When, and if, these fruits became available, there were long queues to get those priceless bananas and oranges.

With the onset of rationing, oranges and bananas disappeared from the shops.Fresh oranges did occasionally arrive safely by ship from America — but they were rationed and restricted to children only.

The British government and the Ministry of Food were concerned that people, especially children, had essential quantities of basic foods to stay healthy, and that staying healthy was an important part of the war effort.
Doctors were regularly sent to schools to check the nutritional needs and general good health of children. Schools were supplied with Virol (formerly Virolax), a liquid laxative made from sweetened bone marrow, that was given weekly to children to “keep them regular.” Virol was eventually discontinued during the war as it was too costly to manufacture. Even in the days of rationing, poor children were guaranteed meals to keep healthy. To avoid the onset of scurvy and rickets, children under five were given doses of cod liver oil; those under three got daily portions of regular or instant dried milk, and the all important orange juice. Mothers were able to get bottles of cod liver oil and concentrated orange juice (both shipped to Britain by the United States) that were distributed at British Welfare Centers.

Snoek
As rationing continued to get more strict as the war loomed on,  sources of protein became more rare. Meats, such as beef and pork, were rationed and allowable amounts were about 4 to 6 ounces per week, per person, but chicken and fish were not although difficult to get.  Fishing in Britain had become dangerous since there was the threat of bombing, even close to shore. The availability of cheap fish called snoek, or snook (a relative of the tuna and mackerel),  in South Africa allowed for eleven million cans of fish to be shipped to England; the government believed it to be the “savior of the fish problem” (Shephard, 329*). It did not catch on! Many people did not like the fish with the unusual and funny name and many remember it as being inedible, smelly, and foul-tasting. Most of the tinned Snoek remained firmly on the shop shelves. The Ministry of Defense issued recipes to make the fish palatable, but even that effort of  turning the salty fish into snoek paste, snoek sandwiches, and snoek piquant, did not prove popular.

The British government bought millions of tins of Snoek and with much of it left near the end of the war,  the unsold tins were given new labels and sold as food for cats and kittens! (Thomas, 35**)

Click the link for a recipe with tinned snoek:  Snoek Piquant

*Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard, Simon and Schuster, 2006

**Villains’ Paradise by Donald Thomas, Pegasus Books, 2006

As strict as rationing came to be during the war, people still wanted to eat in a restaurant. Initially, restaurants were  exempt from rationing, but this was greatly resented by the populous, as wealthier people could supplement their meager food rations by eating out more frequently. By 1942, The Ministry of Food initiated new restrictions for restaurants:
1. Meals were limited to 3 courses

2. Only one dish could contain fish, beef, pork, game or chicken (or other poultry)

3. No meals could be served between 11 p.m. (midnight in London proper) and 5 a.m., unless one applied for a special license from the Ministry of Food

4. The maximum price of a meal in a private restaurant was 5 shillings (about $10 in 2014 US dollars), and there was an up-charge if entertainment was offered or one was staying in a luxury hotel, such as the Ritz

With the war in full swing, about 2100 establishments called “British Restaurants” were run by local groups or “authorities” in town buildings, schools, and church halls as these buildings tended to have kitchens and cafeterias. A plain three-course meal could be purchased for a minor cost (about $2 in 2014 US dollars),  and the good thing was that no ration coupons were required!  The British Restaurant grew out of “Community Feeding Centers,”  and mobile kitchen units that were created to feed people after an air raid, when people’s homes had been bombed and they were open to all. It was necessary to provide a good meal to office and industrial workers for the support of the war effort.