100 years ago in The Saratogian
Friday, Nov. 2, 1917
The Saratoga Mothers’ Club commits itself to wartime food conservation at their annual meeting this afternoon at School No. 7.
The Saratogian reports that the Club intends to practice what it preaches for the duration of the war with Germany. “In keeping with the food conservation propaganda in the nation, the Mothers’ club has decided to serve no refreshments at the meetings it holds during the year,” a reporter notes.
The president, Mrs. Philip S. Wakeley, tells the gathering that “to take the place of the pleasant social hour which usually followed the serving of refreshments, the programs would be made more interesting than usual.”
Guest speaker Alta Jane Emerson, the county food conservation agent, “did not waste words in urging the women to bend every effort to save those foods which may be shipped across the water to our allies and preparing those foods for home consumption which must be used in this country.”
American and Allied soldiers have the first claim on meat and wheat during the war. Civilians are urged to go without wheat at least one day each week, though Emerson says households could do just as well by cutting their wheat consumption down by one-seventh each day. Corn should be substituted for wheat as often as possible, she recommends. Emerson believes that “it should be an easy matter to save meat for it is so expensive to buy these days.” Households should eat fowl more often, she suggests, since “it is impracticable to send poultry across the water.” Cheeses and legumes also make good substitutes for meat. Cheese goes especially well with macaroni, rice or corn meal.
School superintendent Charles L. Mosher urges club members to sign official Food Preservation pledge cards for their propaganda value.
“Why sign this card when I am doing all I can anyway?” Mosher asks rhetorically. Answer: “When all these cards have been brought together, showing where the women of the country stand, it will influence the others to see the importance of the matter and add their support to the work.
“It may be difficult at first to see just how the saving of a slice of bread in your family is going to make more bread to send to Europe, but the line is straight once you consider that if every one of your neighbors did the same thing, the demand upon the grocer would be lessened, he would call less frequently upon the wholesaler and shortly the producer would be called upon for less from this country, opening the way for greater exportation.”