Victory Gardens

Victory Gardens . . . helped keep the children interested and made them feel that they, too, were playing an important part in aiding civilian defense

V. P. Scavarda,
Lansing police lieutenant, 1945

During World War II, many people grew some of their own food in home Victory Gardens, so that farm-grown produce could supply the military rather than civilians. Community groups created large communal garden plots.

Ingham County's volunteer Victory Garden Committee enrolled 7,200 local school children in the "Junior Soldiers of the Soil," a national organization. Responding to the slogan "Food Fights for Freedom," Ingham County exceeded its quotas with more than 20,000 gardens in 1944. Throughout the state that year, Michiganians planted a million gardens. This photograph from the exhibit shows students participating in a Victory Garden program in their classroom.