On Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe hosted by Jane Ziegelman, a food historian and author of A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression.  She discussed how home economists came into the spotlight during the Great Depression to modernize America’s eating habits and educate Americans about nutrition.  

During this time period, home economists discovered the importance of vitamins such as Vitamins A, B, and D to good eating and the prevention of deficiency diseases.  Ziegelman also explained how NYC public schools found that many students were not attending classes in 1930.  Truant officers discovered that the primary cause was children being too weak from hunger to leave the house.  To help combat this, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was established to provide enough food for a minimal living standard, with a significant quantity of milk, along with bread, potatoes, and beans.  Many cookbooks and dietary guidelines were written and radio programs were broadcast to promote preparing nutritious meals.  

This talk furthered the discussion from the February 1 Rose Cafe with Eileen Keating: both lectures explained how Flora Rose developed cereals fortified with calcium and vitamins  (Milkorno, Milkoato, and Milkwheato) and sold them to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, thereby influencing American nutritional habits.  Nutritionists continue to identify aspects of food that should be avoided, as scientific knowledge continues to progress in this area.  For example, there was a push to limit fat significantly from food, but this led to an increase in sugar to give food taste.  

Towards the end of the discussion, Professor Blalock brought up that during the Great Depression, 25 percent of families’ incomes were spent on food, compared to the 9 percent of annual income spent today on food.  We discussed how our society has developed an ambivalence towards food in many ways due to its abundance, and made me appreciate how fortunate I am to be food-secure.  People during the Great Depression could not afford expensive food, like meat; meanwhile, today, I can choose from a wide variety of food at one of Cornell’s many eateries.