Rationing only occurs in unusual times. Rationing often happens during wars. During a war it may be difficult to get food in and out of a country or region.

The need for food is well known. It has been used in wars for thousands of years. In the past, an army would surround a city and try to starve the people out. That was called a siege. They might burn all of the crops in the land around. The people under siege would eat less to keep going for as long as possible, that is they would ration food.

In the Second World War, the Germans tried to stop food from the USA and Canada from reaching the UK in convoy ships. They did this by using submarines to try to sink the cargo ships crossing the Atlantic. This time was known as the Battle of the Atlantic (find out more under that name).

People in the UK were not likely to run out of food very quickly, but it made sense to give everyone the same basic healthy diet. To make sure this happened, everyone got a ration card allowing them so much of each basic food or other goods each week. People still had to pay for the goods, but it meant that rich people could not get more than poor people.

Rationing did not stop immediately after the war ended, for it takes time for everything to get back to normal. So that is why the rationing example chart above is dated 1948. Rationing did not stop in the UK until 1953, even though the war ended in Europe in 1945.