Last week I went to the Rose Cafe presented by Jane Ziegelman. She covered the development of nutrition science in America during the Great Depression and how our very own Flora Rose helped in the effort. The Great Depression posed an immense challenge to millions of Americans as they were faced with a new reality of hunger. Most of those people had never suffered like that before, and had generally looked down upon the bread lines of charities. But as unemployment and food insecurity swept the nation, home economists began creating solutions to the problem of undernourishment.

Flora Rose specialized in food science and had helped feed the people of Belgium after World War I. During the Great Depression she focused on producing a food which would aid Americans in getting the necessary vitamins and nutrients which their diets now lacked. Rose’s creation was a series of fortified cereals which could be used for everything, from regular breakfast cereal to an ingredient in a casserole. A theme among all home economists of the time was to eat foods which had mild flavors; basically very bland and boring food. People thought that the most healthy food was the worst tasting, and surprisingly this is a theme which started in America at its very inception and has continued on to the present day. Also, it was during the Great Depression that milk became wildly known was a ‘super food’ which provided every vitamin and mineral the body needed. This is why almost any recipe from that time include milk as an ingredient even if milk really shouldn’t be included.

In addition to her role as a food innovator, Flora Rose and other home economists worked as mediators to the public about new scientific knowledge about food. They explained what vitamins were, and how they worked. The government got involved by establishing a Federal Bureau of Home Economics, and they even started a radio program in which a character named “Aunt Sammy” addressed the questions and concerns regarding how to stay healthy for a little money as possible. The idea that eating scientifically was the best grew during this time, and it even became a patriotic thing to do so that you saved resources for the rest of the country.

The Great Depression changed the way Americans ate drastically, and has had effects to this day. Fortified foods have become commonplace today, just check the ingredients list of any loaf of bread, bottle of milk, or box of cereal. Flora Rose, Cornell, and home economists were an integral part of that modernization of food.