On Wednesday evening I went to the talk “Nutrition Warriors: Home Economics and the Fight to Feed America During the Great Depression” by Jane Ziegelman, a visiting writer who wrote A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression. Before the talk, I learned during the lottery at House Dinner that American people used to spend 25% of their income during the Great Depression time, while they now only spend 9% on it.

During the Great Depression, the crisis in financial industry expanded to every aspect of the society. Household was lack of money and generally were granted a set amount of necessary food by the government. At the time, there were homo-economists who noticed that Americans were eating too much starch and spending too much income on food. By the way, I didn’t know what home economist was and Wikipedia defines it as ” the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community”. Flora Rose was a home economist at the time and also was one of the first female professors at Cornell (also MVR). Mrs.Jane showed a a picture of Flora Rose along side Eleanor Roosevelt. She told us that Eleanor Roosevelt was also a home economist at the time and she was promoting budget eating in White House at the time, but FDR didn’t really appreciate her style. Flora Rose developed two kinds of breakfast cereal: Milkorno and Milkoato, which were two cereal choices that are inexpensive and nutritious at the same time. Mrs Jane did mentioned that during the Great Depression each household would get a set amount of milk, meat, beans and other food that contain necessary nutrition for human body.

Although not having a nutrition background previously, I still learned about food history during Great Depression, comparing what we have now. Professor Blalock commented at the end of the talk that as our income grow, the percentage we spend our income on food would become less. I feel very lucky to enjoy such great dining halls on west campus everyday and I hope to learn more about nutrition and how to stay balanced in our diet.