Clean Plate Club

Clean Plate Club

The Clean Plate Club was the beginning of a campaign first established in 1917 when the United States Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act or Lever Act. This gave the President the power to "regulate the distribution, export, import, purchase and storage of food." President Woodrow Wilson released Executive order 2679-A creating the U.S. Food Administration and appointed Herbert Hoover as the head, enforcing this act. This organization was given the task of making sure that the limited amount of food America had as a result of World War I didn’t go to waste, and to avoid importation of food as much as possible. Hoover knew that many Americans were willing to volunteer and had a strong sense of patriotism during the war, so he used that to his advantage when he advertised the idea of the “Clean Plate” campaign. Hoover promoted this idea to children who attended school with a pledge that read, “At table I’ll not leave a scrap of food upon my plate. And I’ll not eat between meals, but for supper time I’ll wait.” This targeted children too young to understand the value of food in the difficult economic time. Many necessities such as flour and sugar were in short supply, so Hoover used a sense of American nationalism to encourage families to take appropriate rations and save food. His goal was for people to eat less, use less essential ingredients, and to finish their entire meal. By doing this, young children developed the habit of eating everything given to them, thus “cleaning their plate.”