Let Your Fruit Trees Save Sugar

Let Your Fruit Trees Save Sugar

World War I Poster, 1917-1919
R.M. Brinkerhoff, Artist

The U.S. (P)reserves of soldiering jars of jams and jellies are on march beneath the proud gaze of Mrs. Patriot's Fruit Tree while Mrs. Waster's Fruit Tree stares helplessly down at the rotting and wasted fruit at her feet.

Helplessly Rotting
and Wasted fruit at her feet
Avantgardning ku

Save the Products of the Land

Save the Products of the Land

WW1 US Food Administration; WW1 Food Administration poster by Charles Livingston Bull, famous wildlife illustrator. This poster encourages those on the homefront to eat fish and save meat for the soldiers (what we now realize is a healthy diet for other reasons!)

by Charles Livingston Bull

c. 1917

Food is Ammunition

WW1 US Food Administration Poster by J. Sheridan, reminding Americans that food conservation was essential to the war effort

by J. E. Sheridan

c. 1918

Herbert Hoover, former head of the Belgian Relief Organization, lobbied for and won the job of administrator of the Food Administration. Hoover had made clear to President Wilson that a single, authoritative administrator should head the effort, not a board. This, he believed, would ensure an effective federal organization. He further insisted that he accept no salary. Taking no pay, he argued, would give him the moral authority he needed to ask the American people to sacrifice to support the war effort. As he later wrote in his memoirs, his job was to ask people to "Go back to simple food, simple clothes, simple pleasures. Pray hard, work hard, sleep hard and play hard. Do it all courageously and cheerfully."

Just What the Hoover Food Control Means; Article from New York Times, 1917.

Join the School Army Garden

Join the School Army Garden

Vintage WWI poster for school gardens

WWI Food Administration poster; Uncle Sam as the Pied Piper leading young children to join the School Garden Army

by Maginel Wright Enright (sister of Frank Lloyd Wright)

1919

“Every boy and every girl… should be a producer…Production is the first principle in education. The growing of plants and animals should therefore become an integral part of the school program. Such is the aim of the U.S. School Garden Army.” With these words, the federal Bureau of Education (BOE) launched the United States School
Garden Army (USSGA) during World War I.

Raised 'em Myself

US School Garden - Raised 'em Myself

Issued by the U.S. School Garden Army Bureau of Education, Department of Interior

Horatio Alger type school boy showing the vegetables grown in his school garden. Rare.

WWI

c. 1918

The United States School Garden Army (USSGA) was created in 1917 as a way to encourage gardening among school children. By encouraging children to garden, the U.S. government hoped that a food crisis might be averted, and that America's food system might become more locally-oriented and sustainable. The USSGA was funded by the War Deparment; food was, and still is, an issue of national security. By Armistice Day, several million children had answered the nation's call to service, enlisting as "Soldiers of the Soil."

Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory

Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory. Write for Free Books to National War Garden Commission, Washington D.C. Charles Lathrop Pack, President, P.S. Ridsdale, Secretar

DuMond, Frank Vincent, 1865-1951, creator, artist

WWI

1917

The Lever Act of 1917 represents both the normal working of American government and the extraordinary circumstances of World War I. The process of creating the Lever Act certainly followed the "legislative dance" outlined in the Constitution and congressional custom. Entries in the indexes to the New York Times for 1917 testify to the accepted but various interests of members of Congress in supporting or opposing the legislation; other entries show the range of lobbyists interested in supporting or opposing the bill. In this, the legislative dance seemed typically American: proposed legislation, support or opposition from special interest groups, legislative revision, and congressional hearings. In August 1917, the dance ended. Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act (40 Stat. 276), also known as the Lever Act.

Food Will Win the War

Food Will Win the War
Issued by the United States Food Administration

The United States Food Administration appeals to new immigrants, urging them to do their part in food conservation for their country.

by C. E. Chambers

WWI

c. 1917

US School Garden

US School Garden - Helping Hoover
Printed by the American Litho Company in New York for the U.S. School Garden Army Bureau of Education, Department of Interior

Original WW 1US Food administration poster: sweetly naive image of school children growing vegetables in response to Hoover's declaration that "food will win the war."

WWI
c. 1918