New project!

The National World War II Museum preserves Kitchen Memories
Grassroots program seeks to capture culinary history

NEW ORLEANS – Many of our strongest memories are centered on food: meals we have loved, meals we have hated, special gatherings or everyday routines with relatives and friends, triumphs and disasters in the kitchen.  Now add to the mix the emotions, fears, excitement, and challenges of the Home Front and you’ve got some of the strongest memories of the World War II generation.  The National WWII Museum in New Orleans is encouraging members of the Greatest Generation to share these stories as part of a national grassroots program called Kitchen Memories.

The Museum is seeking to gather a nation’s individual and collective memories of shopping, rationing, growing, cooking, serving, and eating during the war from those who experienced these things first hand. They are also encouraging people who did not experience the Home Front to gather stories from someone who did.  Talk to your mother, grandmother, a relative or friend in your community who has food stories to share.

The goal of the program is to produce a collection of stories, recipes and memories of World War II as a community kitchen project: a way to encourage oral history and talk across generations while these stories can still be collected first-hand.

For helpful guidelines on recording your Kitchen Memories or those of a loved one, visit www.nationalww2museum.org where you can also find information on submitting your oral history, photos and wartime recipes to The National World War II Museum’s archives.

For more information on this and other educational programs at The National World War II Museum, call 504-527-6012 x 229 or email lauren.handley@nationalww2museum.org.

I hope you consider participating!

Comments

[Marissa Jorgenson]

As an experienced and conscientious knitter, I'm very concerned by all the contemporary hype associated with the Knit your Bit program that originated during World War I. I do believe that knitting is a sacred craft, and it allows us knitters to unselfishly create beautiful and often utilitarian pieces for our loved ones. What most people don't realize about the Knit your Bit program is that is was largely for the purposes of propaganda. It's great that women were encouraged to knit lovingly for soldiers suffering overseas, however, the larger effort of propaganda was designed to keep citizens constantly engaged with a war effort they didn't always understand. It was a battle for the hearts and minds of Americans to believe that their country's only intentions were good ones. I think a greater awareness of the hidden agenda behind the program would serve us all well.

[Pat Bogen]

I am looking for the 2009 pattern for the veterans knit-a-bit project for my knitting group, "The Knitwits of Highland Creek", Charlotte NC