We Are What We Eat: Food and American Identity at the National Archives

Going Easy on the Meat
Under Woodrow Wilson's watch during World War I, Americans were asked to conserve resources with Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays. Here, the government suggests cottage cheese as an alternative source of protein. "When our country was involved in war, it meant shortages and sacrifices back here at home," Kamps says. "The whole country was really involved in the war effort in that sense." Food and national security felt closely connected to each other — a link that contemporary Americans, even in the midst of multiple wars, don't have to confront.

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