The Nardi Family has generously partnered with Elijah’s Promise by committing $12,000 to cover the cost of two new commercial freezers and we are committed to match every dollar donated, up to an additional $12,000, to help fill the freezers with nutritious food for our community.

Now, we invite our community to join the fight against hunger. Your gift will help stock these freezers with proteins, fresh vegetables, prepared meals, and other nutritious foods for individuals and families facing food insecurity. Together, we can double our impact.

 

“Freedom From Hunger”

May 5, 2026

Written by Richard L. McCormick,  President Emeritus, University Professor, Board of Governors Professor of History and Education

“Freedom from Hunger”! What a great slogan—and so true. Getting access to food was a central theme of the American Revolution. Just as it does today, food makes life possible, but in the middle of a violent war, food was often unavailable —for soldiers and for families. Then, just as now, the men and women who provided food for the hungry were heroes. and they were every bit as important to winning the war as the bravest soldiers on the battlefield. I want to tell you three stories about Freedom from Hunger in Revolutionary America.

First, food for George Washington’s’s army. The pathetically small government of the fledgling United States had no power to levy taxes, so General Washington’s pleas for money to buy guns, clothing, and food often fell on deaf ears. When government provisions were available, they were sometimes squandered due to confusion, corruption, and mismanagement. Often those who were responsible for buying food for the army found that farmers and merchants had taken advantage of the scarcity and had doubled or tripled the prices they charged. In some of his letters, Washington described his troops as “starving.” Hungry soldiers raided farms and plundered grain and cattle, stole fruit from orchards, and chickens from their coops. Farmers and soldiers were sometimes bitterly at odds. Farmers hid their livestock in the woods, but soldiers found and slaughtered them. Hungry soldiers sometimes deserted and went home to help feed their families, some of whom were also starving. Food was always scarce, always a problem for the Revolutionary army.

Which brings me to my second story—about women who rioted to get the food their families needed. With many of the menfolk away at war, mothers were responsible for providing sustenance for their hungry children. But often they ran into the same greedy merchants as the army’s procurement officers encountered—merchants who exploited the scarcity of meat, bread, and sugar by jacking up their prices to levels that only the wealthy could afford. “I am without bread,” wrote one desperate soldier’s wife. In that life-threatening circumstance, many women took matters into their own hands. They broke into stores and liberated the food their families needed. They assailed merchants verbally and sometimes physically. They marched to obtain bread and meat and led their communities to demand fair prices for food. They took the law and the market into their own hands to feed their families. These brave women contributed to saving not only their children but also their communities and, by war’s end, the United States.

My third story will sound the most familiar today. The great majority of Americans lived out the war not on the battlefields but in their hometowns and with their families. Then as now, some families were better off than others (although the inequalities in Revolutionary America were not nearly as great as they are today)—and many of those who could afford to do so looked after their less fortunate neighbors. They noticed which families needed food, and they brought it to them. They took care of those who were hungry. They provided meat and bread to keep them alive. They felt an obligation to share and to help everyone get through. This generosity was not universal in Revolutionary America, but historians have found evidence of it in many cities and towns. Generous people secured for others “Freedom from Hunger,” just as Elijah’s Promise does today.