County officials prepare for sugar rationing

Creator

Manitowoc Herald-Times (Manitowoc, Wis.)

Date

• March 25, 1942

Summary

• In this picture taken in a room at the Manitowoc County Courthouse and originally published March 25, 1942 in the "Manitowoc Herald-Times," Manitowoc County Clerk Albert Tetzlaff and Assistant Deputy County Clerk Ruth Kuecker process bundles of application cards, ration coupons, and instruction sheets in preparation for sugar rationing. Tetzlaff, wearing a suit and tie, looks at a ledger book as he stands amid the banded bundles. Kuecker, wearing a skirt and blouse, stands on a wooden chair beside the stack of bundles. This picture was reprinted in "Manitowoc County Memories," published by Heritage House Publishing in 1995, with an accompanying caption stating that the two were checking in 84,000 sugar ration coupons, 84,000 application cards, and 88,000 instruction sheets. Sugar was the first commodity to be rationed during World War II and the last to be removed from rationing. Registration for sugar rationing started on Monday, May 4, 1942 with registration sites at all schools in the county. Families with surnames starting with letters A through F were to register on that Monday, with other families registering "alphabetically" on subsequent days. One person was to register on behalf of each family, and had to provide information on the age, sex, height, weight and relationship to the registering person for everyone else in the family. They also had to report how much sugar they already had on hand. Ration coupons were distributed based on family size, but would not be given out until a family used up most of their existing stock of sugar. The initial ration was one-half pound per person per week. Sugar rationing was discontinued in 1947, almost two years after the war ended.