Kin Blog

Here at Kin, we have so many archived letters that were sent over from places all over Britain during World War II as the Milk for Britain campaign was taking place. The organizers of the campaign took great care to share excerpts with all of the Kinsmen, to let them know that all of their efforts were having impacts on real people overseas. 

As mentioned in the previous blog post, there is more to the Milk for Britain story – this is the continuation. If you haven’t yet done so, read Part 1: A Canadian Response.

The success of Kinsmen’s Milk-for-Britain project was in part due to the close relationship that developed with the Women’s Voluntary Services (WVS) of Britain, which distributed the milk in the United Kingdom. Kinsmen was the sole provider of milk throughout the war, according to WVS official Elsa Dunbar, C.B.E.

The year was 1941, and an urgent transatlantic radio broadcast from British Minister of Food Lord Woolton directed the following question to millions of listeners in Canada and the United States:

“Won’t you people in America do without cream in your coffee just one day a week so that little children in Britain can have milk?”