1930s Program Saw People Living on Just a Few Supplies

In the 1930s a series of events led to many families scrambling to get by. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 sent banks and businesses into a tailspin which would take years to recover from- and some never did. Without loans, jobs, or other resources many households were left with very little. For farmers this effect was intensified by the Dust Bowl, a result over farming worsened by drought that left some areas completely unfit for either crops or animals for years. Shortages, particularly in cities, were common during these years.

The 1930s was also the era of the New Deal and in an effort lessen the effects of scarcity a new program was launched by the US government that encouraged farmers to live on as few store-bought goods as possible. The thinking was that, because they could grow their own gardens, keep chickens, milk cows, and had the knowledge to process these foods, that farmers should be producing as many things from scratch as they could.

The Live-at-Home program called on farmers and their families to spend as little as they could down at the general store. The idea was not unlike a form of rationing, albeit this was not enforced by any sort of quotas or coupons. But, the program had other goals aside from simply using fewer store-bought goods.

In South Carolina farmers were encouraged to plant new types of crops in a move away from cotton and tobacco. Increased health through a more varied diet was one benefit touted in official literature around the program, but a key goal of the program was to prevent the kind of soil depletion that caused the Dust Bowl in the first place. Growing different types of crops was the main way to achieve this.

Another objective of the program was to ease federal spending on various relief programs. If farmers could be helped to produce more of their own goods, they would need fewer loans and so on. Even those in less rural areas were encouraged to engage in community farming to reduce their grocery bills and their need for any outside financial assistance.

Families were encouraged to make everything they could. “The cow, the sow, the hen, and the garden” philosophy was a part of this, though the idea had been around long before the Great Depression. If each farm, no matter how small, could have one cow, one pig, and some chickens they could produce a wide range of items. With produce from the garden in addition to crops you’d have a largely self-sufficient operation. Grants, new land, and other resources were given to families that qualified, so there was some money behind the principles of the Live-at-Home program, not just a philosophy.

Some examples of what was considered a success in this field varied, but the photo below from 1939 from a Live-at-Home program household, we see a very small grocery haul as an ideal outcome for farming families. In this selection of goods are sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, baking soda, corn starch, a few spices, a tin of syrup, and some coffee. Everything else the family ate was made on their own farm – or perhaps traded for with neighbors.

Given that one of the spices was sausage seasoning it follows that they probably had a pig. There’s no flour in the photo so they likely were growing wheat or corn as well. There’s no dairy or cheese there and no vegetables, which meant that they must have had a cow and grown a garden as well.

In light of the already hard times of the decade it might seem strange to then encourage people to further restrict their buying. But, the health of the occupation of agriculture was on the line after so many farms had been lost to soil exhaustion, drought, and bankruptcy. Families in the program were also encouraged to earn cash through crafts or side businesses as the need for clothing, furniture, school supplies, and other life expenses loomed during this period of scarcity.