Hunger: For Three Years America Has Fought Starvation in Belgium
A charcoal-style drawing shows a gaunt woman with an infant and two thin children bent over in a bare interior, above the single word 'HUNGER'. The text recalls three years of American relief work in Belgium and asks the viewer to eat less wheat, meat, fats and sugar so that food can be sent in ship loads. The tell is fear-appeal turned into a request: the starving figures are the argument, and the reader's own diet is the proposed remedy.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Food Administration
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Food Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-143.
Text on the object
HUNGER For three years America has fought starvation in Belgium Will you Eat less - wheat meat - fats and sugar that we may still send food in ship loads? UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION
Artist signature 'RALEIGH' in the drawing is not part of the poster text and is not included above.
