Over the twenty-five years while she was teaching the new ideas in nutrition and food preparation to the families of Connecticut, the events of the world continued unabated. The Great Depression (29 October 1929 - 1939), and then World War 2 (1 Sept 1939 - 1945), changed everyone's focus from just preparing good healthy meals for one's family, to also managing to feed a family economically, and then once the war began, working around rationed items.
Just imagine if there were shortages of these items in your life today:
Cars
Bicycles
Gasoline
Fuel Oil & Kerosene
Solid Fuels
Stoves
Rubber Footwear
Shoes
Sugar
Coffee
Processed Foods
Meats, canned fish
Cheese, canned milk, fats
Typewriters
The War brought employment, but unfortunately with the new employment came a lack of goods families would want to purchase after the decade of lean years. The rationing began in January of 1942 with tires, followed by cars in February, typewriters in March, gas and sugar in May, bicycles in July, rubber footwear, fuel oil & kerosene in October, and coffee in November. That was just 1942. Then in 1943: shoes in February, processed foods, meats, canned fish, cheese, canned milk and fats in March, and solid fuels in September.
Many of these are what we would now think of as life's necessities! If you couldn't have a car, well, use a bike -- well, I guess no bike either! My mother talked of using "Shank's Mare" (her feet to get around) and I'm sure that is how she got to work when pregnant with me during the war when they didn't own a car. Oh, and what you consider basic foods to prepare a meal were severely limited. You needed to be creative.
Marion's job involved finding ways to help people feed their families, and so there were numerous bulletins in addition to her talks which would take into account various shortages and alternatives while including foods from the "Basic 7" food groups. Most bulletins would discuss an topic and include many recipes; or might encourage planting by season and how to use what was being harvested then and,of course, have recipes. Some issues were devoted to individual minerals or vitamins. This September 1944 issue was different in format -- it was written "outline-style" and included much more information and hinted at preparation rather than including the details.
The September 1944 bulletin was devoted to packing lunches -- these weren't lunches for children in school, these were for the workers working the various shifts. She starts with listing the "Basic 7" and then talks about planning for what type of person needs the meal "very active" or "moderately active" or "not so active," listing how much of each food to pack for each person.
Next Marion listed the hours of the shifts:
6 a.m. - 2 p.m.: eat a good breakfast first or add extra sandwich for 8 or 9 a.m.
2 p.m. - 10 p.m.: noon meal is the hearty family meal for this worker
10 p.m. - 6 a.m.: lunch at 2 a.m. should be substantial, nourishing and appetizing -- worker's living habits have been turned upside down.
She goes into details of goals for the meal (nourishing, good tasting, carries well, helps morale) and then how to prepare and pack before encouraging variety in lunches with suggestions. Then Marion has a section on Food Shortages!
IV. FOOD SHORTAGES
Meat - make wise use of points. Variety meats
high in food value.
Cheese - use cottage and soft cheese.
Butter - use fortified margarine, extenders.
Unrationed hearty fillings - peanut butter, eggs,
poultry.
Marion includes the "Do's" and "Don'ts" from a Westinghouse survey of workers for packing lunches -- some would apply today. That is followed by sandwich fillings. Remember that sugar, cheese, meat and processed foods are all rationed, but peanut butter isn't.
Here are the peanut butter suggestions (something for you to try instead of PB&J):
*These fillings may be made ahead of time and kept in the
refrigerator.
Peanut Butter
1. *Chili Sauce: 1 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. chili sauce.
2. Bacon: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 4 strips cooked bacon,
chopped, 2 tb. salad dressing.
3. Celery: 1/2c. peanut butter, 1/3c. celery diced,
4 tb. salad dressing.
4. *Ham: 1/3 c. peanut butter, 1/2 c. ham paste.
5. *Honey yeast: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. honey,
1 cake compressed yeast.
6. *Jelly: 1/3 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. tart jelly. Mix.
7. Carrot: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. grated carrots,
3 tbs. salad dressing.
8. Onion: 1 c. peanut butter, 1 small Spanish onion,
1/2 c. mayonaise.
Cheese was rationed, but it seems that cottage or cream cheese or American cheese wasn't, so Marion had suggestions there too.
Cottage or Cream Cheese
1. Bacon: 1 cream cheese, 1/4 c. diced cooked
bacon, 1 tsp. pickle or sauce, 1 tb. milk
2. *Peanut: 1 c. cheese, 1 c. finely chopped
peanuts, 1 tbs. salad dressing, 1/2 tsp.
salt.
3. Combination: 1/2 c cheese, 1/2 c. raisins,
1/2 c. grated raw carrots, 1 tb. salad
dressing.
4. *Chipped beef: 2/3 c. cheese, 1/3 c. ground
chipped beef, salad dressing to moisten.
5. *Olive: 3/4 c. cheese, 3 tb. chopped stuffed
olives, 1/4 tsp. salt.
6. *Egg: 1/2 c. cheese, 2 hard cooked eggs chop-
ped, 2 tb. chopped pickle, 2 tb. salad dressing.
7. Spicy: Cheese salted and mixed with any of the
following: Chow chow, chili sauce, chopped
dill pickle, green pepper, celery, onion,
parsley, carrots.
8. Onion: 1 c. cheese, 1/4 c. chopped Bermuda
onion, 1/4 c. salad dressing.
American Cheese
1. *One-half lb. cheese, 1/2 c. canned tomato,
1/4 c. butter or margarine, 1/4 lb. dried
beef, flaked. Melt cheese in double boiler,
add tomato gradually, stir constantly. Add
other ingredients. Blend well.
2. *One-half lb. cheese, 3 hard-cooked eggs,
1 small onion, 1 pimiento, salt. Put
through food chopper and then mix. Add
salad dressing to slightly moisten.
She then includes recipes for hard-cooked eggs, scrambled eggs and chicken which sound like something someone might suggest today. There were two chicken recipes I might not have thought of for a sandwich filling:
2. *Peanut: 1 c. chicken, 1 c. peanuts chopped.
Salad dressing to moisten.
3. *Giblets: Giblets from 1 chicken (cooked and
chopped), 1 hard cooked egg chopped, 1 tb.
top milk, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. Works-
tershire sauce, 1 tsp. catsup.
Apparently, variety meats were not rationed, so she included recipe suggestions here. Remember Marion's earlier statement about food shortages: Meat - make wise use of points. Variety meats high in food value.
Theses points are your rationing stamps that allow you to purchase different kinds of foods -- if they are available.
Variety Meats
1. Liver and bacon: 1/2 c. chopped cooked bacon,
1/4 c. top milk, 1/2 c. cooked mashed
liver, salt and pepper.
2. *Liver: 2/3 lb. liver, cooked and chopped,
1 onion minced, 1 tb. fat, 2 hard cooked
eggs, chopped, 1/3 c. top milk, salt.
Brown onion lightly in butter. Combine
all ingredients and mix well. Store in
covered can in refrigerator.
3. *Liver Sausage: Chop liverwurst and season
with mustard.
4. Tongue: Ground tongue and horseradish.
5. *Liver Sausage: 3/4 lb. sausage, 1/3 c.
chopped sweet pickle, mayonnaise.
Marion even suggests you can mash baked beans and add a variety of ingredients to them. Marion includes fish sandwich fillings and meat, but not the slices of various meats you might think of today -- no sliced roast beef or chicken or turkey sandwiches listed here. If you have some meat, chop and mix with seasonings or make meat loaves [which actually extends the quantity of food].
Marion suggests including "meat" in the lunch, not just in a sandwich: chicken drumstick, stuffed egg, pickled egg, piece of cheese, slice of meatloaf, meat turnover or meat stew in a thermos bottle.
All of the sandwiches on the preceding pages are what she would have called "substantial sandwich" on page 1, where she recommended the number of substantial sandwiches and succulent sandwiches based on the activity level of the worker. For example a very active worker would need 2 or more substantial sandwiches and one succulent sandwich.
SUCCULENT SANDWICHES
Combination - moisten with salad dressing in most cases.
1. Chopped cabbage and shredded carrots.
2. " " " diced apples.
3. " " " chopped peanuts.
4. " " " green pepper or pimiento.
5. Chopped celery and green pepper.
6. " " " diced tomato.
7. Sliced tomato and chopped egg.
8. " " " lettuce.
9. " " " cottage cheese.
SWEET SANDWICHES
1. Raisins with shredded carrot.
2. *Raisins and chopped nuts.
3. Slices of comb honey or a honey spread.
4. Jelly, jam or marmalade.
5. Grated carrot and honey.
Marion's suggestions of simple desserts sound like things that would be in today's lunch box: cookies, gingerbread, or tarts. She also suggests various puddings, custards or gelatin -- except these aren't prepackaged, they are in those small jars (with tight fitting lids) she suggested saving back on page 3.
She finishes with a list of menus using the sandwich fillings for sandwiches with whole wheat, rye or enriched bread.
If you had to feed your family and the types of food which you were used to serving weren't available because first priority was the troops fighting WW2, you needed information and Google wasn't even imagined (nor were the founders even born), nor were personal computers thought about. The State Extension Service provided a very needed role in both peacetime and war time.
All of these suggestions for Lunches were part of the regular Bulletins provided by the University of Connecticut Extension Service in Storrs, Connecticut. In 1942, the State of Connecticut set up a State Nutrition Committee, with Marion E Dakin as the general chairman and ex-officio member of each of the promotional committees with local nutritionists taking a more active role.
This bulletin, PACKED LUNCH, had a date of 9/18/44 at the end. The bulletin HERBS FOR ACCENT AND FLAVOR was dated 9/13/44, just 5 days before. Marion was a busy person, playing an important role for the families of Connecticut.
The bulletins I've found in her home after she died in 1974, might not be all that she wrote.
© Erica Dakin Voolich, 2016
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