During this week’s Rose Cafe series, Jane Ziegalman came to talk to us about nutrition and its role during the great depression. Bread lines in NY have been operating since the late 1850s. But as the Depression deepened and the number of hungry Americans increased, eating habits began to change. Home economics was started by women who believed that it should become a legitimate profession. These women focused on creating a style of cooking that avoided strong smells. In fact, Flora Rose, the namesake of our House, formed the home economics department here at Cornell. As someone who never really studied home economics even in high school, I’ve always been curious about what home economics was about and its importance. Other famous figures, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, also created a specific diet for her family in the White House. Her approach didn’t rely on taste; this made me chuckle and reminded me of how my mom tries to regulate my family’s food intake and bases it off of nutritional value rather than taste. All in all, this talk was very interesting and definitely stimulated my curiosity to learn more about the food history during a desperate time period for the US.