World War II and THE 1940’S WAR RATIONS / FOOD

It is hard for us to imagine a time where we would not to be able to go to the store and buy anything we want whenever we want. Yet during World War II in the 1940’s that is what happened to our country. Families were issued ration books for each member of the family, to be used only by that member of the family. A description of the person the book was issued to was on the cover and that person must be present at the time the food was bought. Stamps were valid only as directed with the ration week running from Saturday midnight to the following Saturday midnight and the stamps were only valid for that week. When buying a rationed item, the proper stamp had to be detached in the presence of the storekeeper or his employee. If a stamp is torn out of a book in any other way it became void. Time-Life estimated that three billion stamps less than one inch square changed hands in one month.

Inside these books were coupons that specified which ration item you could buy and on what week. In Book 3 images of military equipment were on the coupons.

There were strict allocations of 48 points worth of processed food per person per month. Each stamp was worth 10 points and a can of green beans for example was 6 points your change would be cardboard tokens worth one point each. When it came to meat and dairy each person was allowed two pounds of meat, a quarter pound of butter, seven ounces of cheese, three ounces of shortening and 12 ounces of margarine each week.

Starting in Book 4 some coupons specified on the coupon coffee, flour (picture of wheat) Note the green stamp is the arm of the Statue of Liberty.

Blue tokens were the change for process foods stamps (canned goods) and red tokens represented change for meats and dairy products.

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