Rural Women's Voluntary Contribution Measured in Dollars and Cents.
In 1945, the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada, which co-ordinated the voluntary contributions of rural women, made an attempt to evaluate the quantity of items made, cash raised, and waste salvaged for the war effort by its members. For example, between 1 October 1943 and 30 September 1944, the Saskatchewan Women's Institutes with only 40 percent of their branches reporting had made 1 795 quilts, knit 5 577 articles and sewn 5002 garments for the Red Cross and other organizations, salvaged 847 kilograms (1 867 pounds) of fat, made cash donations of $14 714 to various war funds, and purchased $5 732 worth of war savings bonds.
The women's institutes of other provinces submitted similar reports. The women's institutes in British Columbia had helped make 110 metric tons (121 tons) of jam for Britain between 1940 and June 1944. Prince Edward Island women had made hundreds of tins of apple jelly; QuΘbec and Ontario women had donated maple sugar. Although the extent of Canadian women's material and voluntary contributions to the war effort can never be measured exactly, the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada calculated that its members contributed $527 335 in cash and products during the last three years of the war.
Some of the goods unfortunately failed to reach their intended recipients because of poor packaging. The caption for this November 1944 photograph was: "Jam in glass jars and cough medicines secreted in loaves of bread or cakes provide greatest headaches for busy Army Postal Corps workers at the Base Post Office, Ottawa, these pre-Christmas days."
Courtesy: National Film Board Second World War Still Photograph Collection, National Photography Collection, Public Archives of Canada (PA-130433)
