Food Is Ammunition is sheet No. 5 of the U.S. Food Administration, 1917, signed by J. E. Sheridan. A basket of vegetables, corn and grapes sits under a silhouetted column of mounted soldiers with the flag.
What the sheet prints
Two layers. In front, a harvest: vegetables, ears of corn, grapes. Behind, against an orange sky, cavalry in silhouette riding with the flag. The slogan joins them with a dash.
Food is Ammunition-
Don't waste it.
No. 5
UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION
HEYWOOD STRASSER & VOIGT LITHO. CO., N.Y.
Who issued it
The U.S. Food Administration issued it in 1917, printed by Heywood Strasser & Voigt Litho. Co. of New York, with art by J. E. Sheridan. The National Archives copy is in Record Group 4, the Food Administration's own World War I poster series (series NAID 512439), local identifier 4-P-49.
How to read it
As a metaphor, this one has a case. Armies had to be fed, the Allies needed grain shipped across the Atlantic, and what an American family threw out was not available to send. "Don't waste it" is a modest request, and wasting less food is good advice in any year.
The metaphor also does more than the request needs. If food is ammunition, a kitchen is an arsenal and a careless cook is close to a saboteur. The poster never says that. The Closed notice shows the agency shutting businesses for breaking its rules. A household's choice about supper and a merchant's legal duty were different things, and a free society keeps them apart. This sheet sits on the gentle side of that line, borrowing the soldiers' glory for the pantry rather than threatening anyone.
For the same campaign addressed to new immigrants, see the Yiddish Food Will Win the War. For the administration's publicity office, see the CPI case study. The Wilson administration essay covers Hoover's Food Administration as a separate agency from Creel's committee, and its bet on voluntary saving over a compulsory ration.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It., 1917. U.S. Food Administration; artist J. E. Sheridan.
- U.S. National Archives, RG 4, World War I Posters, series NAID 512439, catalog item 512488, local identifier 4-P-49, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: NARA unrestricted.
