---
title: 'Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care (Don''t Waste It)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-buy-it-with-thought-dont-waste-it-1917/
description: A lettering-only poster lists six numbered household rules for food use, from buying with thought to using what is left.
section: Collection
---

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3. Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care (Don't Waste It)

[![Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care, 1917 US poster: A lettering-only poster lists six numbered household rules](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-buy-it-with-thought-dont-waste-it-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-buy-it-with-thought-dont-waste-it-1917.jpg)

# Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care (Don't Waste It)

A lettering-only poster lists six numbered household rules for food use, from buying with thought to using what is left, ending in the line 'don't waste it.' It offers no image, enemy or argument, only a short checklist in plain language. The technique tag is the closest honest one: the voice is that of ordinary household practice rather than authority.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
food
1- buy it with thought
2- cook it with care
3- use less wheat & meat
4- buy local foods
5- serve just enough
6- use what is left
don't waste it
U.S. FOOD ADMINISTRATION
THE W.F. POWERS CO. LITHO. N.Y.
[small mark at lower left, apparently 'No 1', and a small monogram beside 'it': illegible]
```

[← Follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country: Enlist in the Navy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/follow-the-boys-in-blue-enlist-in-the-navy-1917/) [Food Control Is a War Measure →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-control-is-a-war-measure-1917/)

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- ['This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Plain folks, Transfer)
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