Wheatless Wednesday: Herbert Hoover’s WWI Food Preservation Plan Inspires Meal Ideas [Recipe: Vegetable Patty]
Wheatless Wednesday, along with her currently more popular cousin Meatless Monday, were the brainchild of Herbert Hoover during World War I. Already active as a food relief administrator in Europe, Hoover was appointed to preside over the U.S. Food Administration in 1917, just before the United States entered the First World War. It would be twelve more years before Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st president of the United States, but by that time he was already a household name.
Hoover’s massive food preservation program encouraged Americans to reduce food consumption so that the food supply for the troops and war-torn Europeans would remain strong. The uniqueness of his plan– as opposed to later World War II efforts — was that Hoover’s program avoided rationing, while still successfully reducing American food consumption by 15%.
