Help World Hunger — leap 1 Victoria Ras
In World War two propaganda posters were made telling people to grow their own food and start making gardens. In the article published on the National WW2 website, they said “Propaganda posters urged Americans to plant “victory gardens’ ‘ and can grow their own vegetables to help free up more factory-processed foods for use by the military”. All over the country, people would conserve their food so food wasn’t getting wasted. Restaurants also had meatless days where they wouldn’t serve any meat so the nation’s meat supply wouldn’t run low. In the text it also says “Whenever the OPA announced that an item would soon be rationed, citizens bombarded stores to buy up as many of the restricted items as possible, causing shortages”. This kind of reminds me of when COVID first hit and everyone went to the grocery stores and stocked up on everything. Toilet paper was one of the main things people would buy and the stores would limit how many you could buy. Macaroni and cheese were popular during World War 2 because it was cheap and did not require many ingredients. There was a black market that people would trade food on like meat and other foods that were shortaged. OPA stands for the Office of Price Administration which was in charge of everything but they relied on volunteers to hand out ration books so people would understand what to do. In the article, it says “ By the end of the war, about 5,600 local rationing boards staffed by over 100,000 citizen volunteers were administering the program”. Lots of people took the opportunity to work for the OPA and help the country when it was falling apart. Rationing started right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first product that had to be rationed was tires so if you had a hole or nail you had to patch it up and deal with it. Tires were rationed because the government wanted to make sure there was enough for the military. Only people in the military, doctors, nurses, and fire and police were allowed new tires for emergency purposes. I wanted to talk about World War 2 because back then hunger issues were a problem and they still are today.
Now in 2023, World Hunger is a huge issue. I chose to talk about this for the Propaganda assignment because I don’t think many people want to talk about it. I made a poster for world hunger and a child is in the background of it. I think it’s important to show that children are victims of world hunger and people will probably think of their own children.
I see so many restaurants or fast food chains throw out food all the time. One place that I see a lot is Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. They will get rid of coffee or food just because they want to. I think companies that are this big should donate food that they don’t want anymore. Dunkin throws away all perfectly fine donuts every night and I think they should donate them to a shelter or church where people might be in need. This would be a great way to save food and help families out. Grocery stores also throw away food. Most of it is food that is close to the sell-by date but it shouldn’t get thrown away it should get donated. I don’t think many people speak up about donating or trying to help world hunger because they don’t know much about it. Where I’m from I was never taught about where I can donate food and help families. When I was in the Girl Scouts in elementary school I remember going to the Y to donate a bunch of food my family wasn’t going to use.
My target audience for this was families and people who have struggled with not being able to afford food on their own. I think a percentage of people in this world have gone through something like this and maybe now they are in a better spot where they can afford food. So targeting people who have gone through it might grab their attention and help people in need.
People all over the world may not have access to good food. In America, we have options like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, and farms that all give us fresh produce. People that live in countries that are struggling can’t get fresh produce. Food has become extremely expensive. Just today I was at the grocery store and was looking to buy butter and it was over a dollar more expensive than it was last year. For people who can’t afford many groceries, it might be hard for them to buy that. Inflation has been a huge problem in America and it’s not just food, it’s clothes too.
I applied what I learned about propaganda in many ways for this assignment. I thought about how society would feel reading the poster. And how it could grab people’s attention. When we learned about the Nazis they made posters that were brightly colored and made people think about their families and how they can help them. The posters were terrible and sad to look at. It’s important to think about your marketing strategy when making posters for anything. When I made mine using a template of Canva I made sure to keep the black and white image because I think it makes it look sadder and will make people emotional. When it comes to the text of the poster I made everything in white. I didn’t want to add any color because I think bright colors make people happy and this is not a happy subject.
I liked this experience because I enjoyed looking at all the different options we could write about. I really enjoyed looking at my classmates’ posts and what they chose to talk about. So far in this class, I’ve really enjoyed learning about Propaganda and look forward to learning more about it.
Citation
MarshallV. (2018, July 11). Rationing: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rationing#:~:text=Propaganda%20 posters%20red%20 Americans%20to,for%20use%20by%20the%20 military.
