Claud Fullwood - The Rations Challenge: Forty Days of Feasting in a Wartime Kitchen

Contents

A creative and insightful approach in relation to how our food choices affect both our local and global economies. We hope that people will be inspired to take action locally, as this books shows that we all have a choice and that if we work together we have the capacity to tackle the major problems of hunger, waste and inequality.

Michelle Slater, Missio

As more and more people are wondering how to live sustainably, this book couldnt come at a more relevant time. Claud Fullwood mixes together recipes, interviews, facts and personal experience into a delicious treat of a book: one which is light but substantial, and good for you too! By looking back to our grandparents experience, she provides us with hope for the future and plenty of ideas about how to eat better, live more fully, and reconnect with the world around us and the people we love.

Sarah Hagger-Holt, author, parent-of-two and former campaigns manager at Catholic aid agency CAFOD

For my husband and children who make every
day something to celebrate
and
In loving memory of Jim

Text copyright 2019 Claud Fullwood

This edition copyright 2019 Lion Hudson IP Limited

The right of Claud Fullwood to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by

Lion Hudson Limited

Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park

Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England

www.lionhudson.com

ISBN 978 0 7459 8077 5

e-ISBN 978 0 7459 8082 9

First edition 2019

Acknowledgments

Scripture quotations [marked NIV] taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicized. Copyright 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

p.19 Quotation from Steve Goodier: http://www.LifeSupportSystem.com

p.42 Why Shouldnt She Grace Nichols. Reproduced with permission from Curtis Brown Group Ltd on behalf of Grace Nichols (ebook rights)

Why Shouldnt She Grace Nichols from The Fat Black Womans Poems published by Virago; Little, Brown Group. (print rights)

p.66 Julia Child interview by Polly Frost, Interview Magazine, 16 July 2009.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

Cover image gud_zyk/istock

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Rations Challenge is not intended to be a diet book or meal plan. Please consult your doctor if you intend to make any changes to your diet.

Contents

A few years ago, I found myself wondering how I could explore abstinence as an act of solidarity. What if abstinence could help me to change my perspective on how we live, how we shop, and how we eat?

So, for Lent that year, I decided to live on rations: 1943 British rations to be precise. Why? Well, apart from my being obsessed with all things vintage, the Second World War was most likely the last time there were real food shortages in this country, when the threat of hunger was a real issue for the whole of Britain. Although it was nothing like a starvation diet, by 1943, most food was rationed in the UK and almost no imports were getting in. I decided to live on rations for Lent and I wrote a blog about my experiences some of which you can read in the week-by-week sections of this book.

I have never been very good at abstinence. Ive often set myself the challenge of giving up my favourite sweet treats, but this abstinence can become hackneyed a slimming diet, where cutting out sweets or chocolate takes the edges off the abundance we live in, but really benefits me only in a superficial way and is rewarded with a chocolate fest when Im done. Any lasting impact is quickly forgotten and thats on the occasions when Ive actually managed not to give into temptation.

I feel I need to add a bit of perspective here, so you know where Im coming from now and where I was coming from then. You see, my life has changed a lot since I did my challenge; almost beyond recognition in fact.

At the time, I was living a very well-off existence definitely middle class, with a good job and a nice house in the London suburbs. I lived in a world of abundance, choice, and so much food. If theres a foodstuff that is actually unavailable in London, I dont know what it is, and I had not only the pick of British supermarkets on my doorstep, but also the pick of Asian, European, African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern foods within easy reach.

This made me into a self-professed foodie to the point of gluttony. I was used to being able to pick what I wanted, when I wanted, and as much as I wanted. Ive always loved trying new recipes, new restaurants, and exotic ingredients. I was generally too disorganized to make a packed lunch for work, so Id nip out at lunchtime and grab whatever salad, sandwich, or pub lunch I fancied. It didnt really matter, because I could afford it and there was always more choice than you could ever get your head round.

These days, while I wouldnt class myself as poor, I certainly have to think of the budget constantly, and how to make it stretch. I now live in a very small town in a rural county, am self-employed, and earning roughly a third of what I earned when I did the challenge. Oh, and I have added two children to our household. In austere times, when everyone is tightening their belts and budgets, we are pretty much always making do and mending.

Were not the only ones, and were most definitely not the worst off. Before we even get started on the Global South, there are so many people right here in the UK who are stretched to their limits trying to feed their families.

According to the Trussell Trust, a record number of people are accessing food banks in Britain right now. Their own food banks handed out three days worth of food on over a million occasions between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018. Nearly half a million of those handouts went to children. Thankfully (and often thanks to kind friends and family) weve never reached the point of using food banks. But I know too many friends who have. Its a reality for a lot of people and being hardworking and thrifty is not always enough to see you through.

Im not complaining: I am living a life I chose. But when I first did the challenge, it was a voluntary break from the reality of my day-to-day existence. Now, the principles I discovered during my rationing are ones I have to apply as a matter of course. Questions of food, austerity, and waste are real and important ones. And Im so grateful that I have some useful, applicable tools at hand; tools I got from doing this challenge.