World War II restrictions cut deep into every American pantry as
federal officials announced that sliced bread would be rationed
on this day in history, Jan. 18, 1943.

"I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to
the morale and saneness of a household," distraught mother
Sue Forrester of Fairfield, Connecticut, claiming to speak on
behalf of America’s housewives, lamented in a New York Times
letter to the editor.

Wartime rationing had already caused severe restrictions on
the nation’s household food supply. 

Basic resources were devoted in ever-growing volume to the
war effort in 1943, as the tide of battle turned and the U.S. and
its Allies went on the offensive across the vast expanse of two
oceans.

Bread rationing marked the depths of sacrifices on the home
front. 

Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented the
first single loaf bread-slicing machine. A prototype he built
in 1912 was destroyed in a fire, and it was not until 1928
that Rohwedder had a fully working machine ready. The
first commercial use of the machine was by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, who sold their
first slices on July 7, 1928.

By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced,
leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced
bread"

Otto Frederick Rohwedder
(July 7, 1880 – November 8, 1960)

This photograph depicts a "new electrical bread
slicing machine" in use by an unnamed bakery
in St. Louis in 1930.

Kerr Group, Inc. (1992-1996) Businessman and entrepreneur
Alexander Hewitt Kerr (below) organized this company in
Portland, Oregon in 1903 under the name Hermetic Fruit Jar
Company. The official name was changed in 1904 to Kerr
Glass Manufacturing Company.

Kerr offered the ‘Economy’ brand of mason jar produced for
them by the Illinois-Pacific Glass Co.

The company, with offices in Portland, Oregon, was called the
Hermetic Fruit Jar Company. Kerr Glass owned and operated
seven glass plants in various locations throughout the United
States by 1975. Its products were sold nationally by employees
of the company from its twenty-seven sales offices.

(September 4, 1862 – February 9, 1925)

CHINA KITCHEN, I WOULD LIKE TO ORDER THREE NO. 4 DINNERS WITH BROWN RICE AND EXTRA HOT MUSTARD.

Jane Parker Fruitcake has been a holiday tradition since
the late 1930’s.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known
as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that
operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975,
A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States
(and, until 1965, the largest U.S. retailer of any kind)

Cracker Jack is a brand of snack food well known for being
packaged with a prize of trivial value inside.

The Cracker Jack name and slogan, "The More You Eat The
More You Want", were registered in 1896. Some food
historians consider Cracker Jack to be the first junk food.

The origin of sugar-coated popcorn with a mixture of peanuts
is unknown, but periodicals document its manufacture and
sale in North America as far back as the early 19th century.

The Freeport, Illinois Daily Journal newspaper published on
January 29, 1857, for example, contains an advertisement by
a local merchant selling sugar-coated popcorn.

The Cracker Jack brand has been owned and marketed by
Frito-Lay since 1997.

1918 Cracker Jack ad asking readers to enlist in the Navy.
Eating Cracker Jack would save valuable sugar and wheat
for the war effort .