Housewives Promise They Won't Waste Food During WW 1, 1917

“Food Pledge Campaign,” from the Nov. 1, 1917, issue of The French Broad Hustler. The Hustler, Henderson County’s Leading Newspaper.

Raleigh, N.C., Oct. 29—Food Pledge Campaign week in North Carolina was ushered in under most favorable circumstances Saturday, the first day being observed as Food Information and Registration Day. Reports from many counties of the State show that enthusiastic meetings were held at the school houses and that thousands of housewives took the first opportunity offered to pledge their co-operation for service at home to win the war.

The State has been thoroughly organized for this campaign and those who are acquainted with the extent of Food Administrator Henry A. Page’s organization and preparations declare that not only will the results of the campaign be far-reaching insofar as the saving and substitution of foodstuffs are concerned, but that a more intimate sympathy upon the part of the people generally will be established, each individual being shown by facts and figures that the services that may be rendered by them at home are just as important as the service that will be rendered by the soldiers in the front ranks.

“The service asked of the people at home is so simple and so easy,” stated Mr. Page to your correspondent, “that our people have been slow to realize just how vital and necessary it is. The co-operation we ask of the housewife and the consumer of food will help to win the war—and to win it quicker and with a smaller loss of life. Surely our government, our soldiers and the mothers of these soldiers, have a right to demand and expect the fullest and most cheerful co-operation, especially when one remembers that the course we ask all housewives to pursue is the wise course from the standpoint of economy and health.”

The pledge card which each housewife is asked to sign this week is simple, imposing no onerous or impossible obligation upon the signer. It reads as follows:

“To the Food Adminstrator:

“I am glad to join you in the service of food conservation for our nation and I hereby accept membership in the United States Food Administration, pledging myself to carry out the directions and advice of the Food Administration in my home, in so far as my circumstances permit.”

There are no fees or dues to be paid. The Food Administration wishes to have all those actually handling food in the home.

The home instruction card, which contains in a nut-shell the suggestions and advice of the Food Administration with a clear and succinct explanation of the “wheretofore” will be presented to every housewife, even to those who did not sign the pledge cards. Those who do sign the pledge cards will be entitled to receive also a membership card in the Food Administration.