The FReeper Foxhole Reviews Food Rationing on the Homefront during WWII - October 23rd, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Good memory larry. Thanks for sharing with us today. Here are some pics and history of those tokens:

By 1943 many of the common food items came under the rationing program, including butter, coffee, dairy products and some meats. Each item was assigned a certain number of ration points in addition to the monatery price. Grocery shoppers had red and blue food rationing stamps along with red and blue tokens that were given as change if your stamp's value was higher then the points required.

The red stamps and tokens were for meat and animal products and the blue stamps and tokens were for vegatable products like sugar. You couldn't substutute one color in place of the other. The stamps and tokens had to be paid just like the money for those items that were rationed. Shoppers could earn extra stamps by turning in their meat drippings and other fats for bomb production. Thus, shoppers looked not only at the price of an item, but how many rationing points or stamps they cost.


Close up of the red and blue OPA ration tokens and 1943 steel cents. The red tokens were used for purchasing meat, while the blue ones were used for processed foods. The steel cents were minted only in 1943 in an effort to save copper for use in making munitions.

[snippy_about_it]

Whoa! Good thing you weren't on the phone. I had my television ruined by lightning a few years back. It still worked but the color was ruined.

[snippy_about_it]

1983 241 U.S. Marines and sailors in Lebanon were killed in a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

[snippy_about_it]

We cast our votes a couple days ago for W!

[snippy_about_it]

btw, my mother STILL won't eat SPAM

LOL. I don't blame her a bit!

Hugs.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. That's okay, we're used to being corrected and we actually expect it. I get tired and testy snippy a lot lately because we are so busy with our paying jobs.

I need you guys to keep the threads straight for us!

[snippy_about_it]

But all too often, many of them gradually lost their zeal.

Living gets in the way I'm afraid. Thanks for the gentle reminders.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, larryjohnson. I never heard about the tokens before.

[SAMWolf]

Thankfully no harm or foul and the modem and everything is working OK.

Thanks the Lord for small miracles. :-)

[SAMWolf]

1983 241 U.S. Marines and sailors in Lebanon were killed in a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

Rest in Peace

[SAMWolf]

Morning stand watie.

Thanks for telling us about the Texas State College for Women's Victory Garden.

Attitudes on the Home Front sure were different back then.

Free Dixie

[SAMWolf]

Morning shield. Thanks for the bump.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.

Need that cup of coffee this morning to chase away the chills.

[shield]

You're welcome Kind Sir. ;o)

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Snippy. All these personal accounts are really interesting to me since I had no family here in the 40's who went through all this.

[SAMWolf]

Cool!

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA.

My vote is in already. Snippy won us a couple of tickets to see a special full length showing of "Stolen Honor".

The local talk show was giving them away. Of course I tried for two days every half hour and couldn't win. Snippy gets them via E-mail. Go Figure. Anyway we get to see it Tuesday night. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Hey! What's wrong with SPAM???

[SAMWolf]

Sir? You keep calling me that and Snippy will give me a hard time. ;-)

[shield]

Sorry....SAMWolf...is not sir? OK!!!