Victory Gardens Become Freedom Gardens, 1948

From the April 1948 issue of Extension Farm-News, a monthly newsletter sent from N.C. State College to state Extension Service employees

Home gardeners of the nation are being asked to help make 1948 the biggest food production year in history, says H.R. Niswonger, Horticulture Extension specialist at State College. Twenty million Freedom Gardens is the goal for 1948.

With so much of the world suffering from hunger and malnutrition, and with the productive facilities of war-ravaged lands only partially restored, Americans are being asked again to share their relative abundance of foods with less fortunate people abroad.

The problem, now, however, he continued, is without precedent. The demands are so great the only by using our productive resources to the utmost can we hope to help the starving abroad meet their very minimum nutritional requirements, and at the same time continue to enjoy our present high standard of living at home.

During the war years, “Victory Gardeners” tilling over 18,000,000 gardens each year, supplemented our national food supplies to the extent of many millions of tons, thus making a material contribution toward winning the war, the horticulture specialist stated. More fresh vegetables and fruits were made available to homefront civilians and housewives were enabled to preserve for winter use billions of quarts of home-grown produce. More commercially produced foods were then made available to our troops and our allies. This year, Mr. Niswonger said, gardeners can again help by adding to our total national food supply.