California's New Deal Prunes

Above: The caption for this 1938 photograph reads, "Drying prunes of small California farm. Family labor. Sonoma County, California." Photo by Dorothea Lange, Farm Security Administration, provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A closer view of the farmers.

The New Deal and the California Prune

The California prune was an important food during the New Deal. For example, in fiscal year 1937, the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation spent $1,959,864 (that's about $35 million in today's dollars) buying California prunes for distribution to the needy ("Farmers Get 12 Million on Federal Work," The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), March 19, 1939, p. 16).

An example of how prunes (and other surplus food) were distributed is seen in a different 1939 newspaper article, in Ohio:

"A consignment of over 27 tons of foodstuffs was received Thursday by Relief Director Everett Jacoby after he and B.A. Albright, state director of federal surplus commodities distribution, made a survey of Hocking County's relief situation... Three truck were sent to Columbus Thursday morning to get the following amounts of federal surplus commodities, which are distributed through WPA: Prunes, 5,000 lbs. Beans, 10,000 lbs. Flour, 1,000 24-1/2 lb. bags. Dried skim milk, 5,000 lbs." ("27 Tons of Foodstuffs Arrive for Relief Families," The Logan Daily News (Logan, Ohio), January 12, 1939, p. 1, emphasis added).

California prunes were great for the struggling families of the 1930s because they were loaded with nutrients, for example, potassium, magnesium, dietary fiber, and vitamins A, B, and K. (Also see, "Why Prunes Are Good For You," The Guardian, February 16, 2013.)

Above: A California prune box from the 1930s. An interesting history of the Rosenberg Bros. & Co., a San Francisco-based business, can be read here. Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: The reverse side of the Rosenberg Bros. & Co. prune box, showing that they were members of the National Recovery Administration's (NRA) efforts to lift the country up from the Great Depression. The NRA, as well as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, were very early New Deal agencies. They seem to have helped the prune industry, which, like most farm sectors, had suffered from extreme price drops (see, for example, "Millions Are Added to State Prune Growers' Output by Price Rise," The San Francisco Examiner, November 17, 1933; and, more generally, "California's Farm Income Up 54 Percent Under [Secretary of Agriculture] Wallace," The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), September 29, 1940, p. 2). Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: Another California prune box from the 1930s, this one used by the New Deal's Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation. Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: Enrollees in the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) are packaging another type of dried fruit for Surplus Commodity distribution, in Millville, Massachusetts, November 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: Surplus Commodity distribution in St. Johns, Arizona, October 1940. The New Deal had many programs to help feed a hungry nation. Photo by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration, provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.