Food conservation is very important during wartime, as it takes many resources to feed a large army. Women, children, and families on the homefront made sacrifices in their own meals to help conserve wheat and meat, among other items. U.S. Food Administrator (and future President) Herbert Hoover suggested "meatless Mondays" and "wheatless Wednesdays" to help Americans save food resources for soldiers. Hoover's organization also gathered and distributed millions of pounds of food for starving Europeans, in war-torn places like Belgium. 

"Food will win the war" was a popular slogan that appealed to Americans' patriotism, encouraging them to eliminate waste and learn to use substitutes for sugar and fats.