"Food for Britain" 1947 Australia

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I have just had a reply from a member of Countrywomen of Australia to an email I sent them about parcels of food which our W.I. received from them in 1947. This seems to have been part of the Food for Britain scheme.
   I wondered if any of the Australian contributors to these threads had any memories or knowledge of this - mothers taking part perhaps?

[gazania]

I was only a kid, but I remember watching my grandmother prepare parcels.  There were tins of food like tinned peaches as well as a cake or biscuits which she made.  The outer packaging was always calico which she stitched up. I was always under the impression she sent the parcels back to her relatives. She migrated as a child with her family.  Her mother died on the voyage out from dysentery. Her father was left to rear the young children and start up his business as a saddler.  He eventually remarried, we think, his housekeeper.

[majm]

I was born 1947,  and I have living relatives born in 1910s,  I phoned several re this enquiry.  All,  like me are born in NSW Australia,   but I remember  the doing up of parcels for Britain,  so I was concerned if I was remembering watching the 'doing up,' or remembering the oral history about it.

Nope,  I did see my mother, gran, aunties ... all the local ladies get together various homes,  the rural communities in central west NSW made boiled fruit cakes, jams, preserves, etc,  stitched into unbleached calico and sent by seamail to Food for Britain in England. Postage stamps were subsidised by various church groups and ladies auxiliaries.  This went on until mid 1950s  stopped when we stopped half day holiday 24 May Empire day.

So from prior research NSW schools ceased 1/2 day holiday for 24 May in 1957 or 1958.

I dont know what happened in the cities or in other states ....sorry

JM

[Nanna52]

I remember my mother talking about it.  The Tudor Village in the Fitzroy Gardens was given as a thank you to the people of Melbourne for food parcels sent to Britain.

http://www.fitzroygardens.com/Index_Page.htm

[barryd]

In 1948 I was in England, three and a half years old with my mother and waiting awaiting passage to Malaya where my father was working after his demob from the Army. On arrival on the SS Oranje we went by train to the north and it was there, on the platforms, Banana Sellers.  Never seen a banana or had one before. My mother always loved to recount that story. Never heard about the food for Britain Scheme. How was it determined who got a parcel?


 

[Top-of-the-hill]

   Thank you for the interesting replies. I only came across this when I was researching our W.I. minutes for WW2. I am not sure how well known the "Food for Britain" name was in U.K. - it did not appear in the minutes, just that a particular CWA branch had sent parcels of food. My recent contact with the branch in Victoria sent them off to their archives to find out about it! How they got the addresses to send parcels to, I don't know. I have only found one little press report in Trove.

[lydiaann]

I was born in 1944 and do remember rationing; however, I never heard of 'Food for Britain'.  I would imagine it would be for the people of the inner cities who had lost so much of their infrastructure and were having problems finding a place to live, let alone put food in their stomachs.  We were lucky, living in the country where we did have rationing but also could grow a lot of stuff ourselves.  However, on behalf of all those who DID need the goods you sent over, thank you so much for caring about those on the other side of the world.

[Nanna52]

ToTH I just googled “food for Britain” and found a few reports from Trove, also a display from New Zealand.  One was a report of the CWA joining the Lord Mayors Appeal for foods.  He also asked for money donations to buy bulk items.

[majm]

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206447286 Age 21 August 1953 Committee sending food parcels to Britain since 1946

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103933644 Western Herald 3 Dec 1954, CWA Annual meeting Bourke branch (as in far western NSW)  sent Food for Britain parcels ….

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62533860  Townsville Daily 1 Jan 1955
New Years Honour List … Order of the British Empire OBE  Miss J… McL…, of Brisbane for work in the interest of Community Welfare through the Victoria League and the Food for Britain fund.  (I did not type up the full name of the lass being awarded the OBE in 1955, I have no knowledge of if she is no longer living.)


JM