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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

World War II on the home front: Rationing

Salvaging waste fats

Women were urged to save waste fat and greases and return them to butchers. The poster on the counter in this photograph announced that the butcher would pay for the fat and sell it to rendering plants so that it could be processed into explosives. Since meats, oils, and butter were all rationed, women had to re-use fat for frying as often as possible before collecting it in a can and turning it in.

Ann Rosener/U.S. Office of War Information

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