Blitz began in late summer 1940 he was ready with more than 200 feeding stations in London and other cities under attack. Woolton was faced with the task of overseeing rationing due to wartime shortages. He took the view that it was insufficient to merely impose restrictions but that a programme of advertising to support it was also required. He warned that meat and cheese, as well as bacon and eggs, were in very short supply and would remain that way. Calling for a simpler diet, he noted that there was plenty of bread, potatoes, vegetable oils, fats and milk. He asked the mathematician Martin Roseveare to design the ration books. In 1940 Woolton set up Advice Centres throughout the country, with cookery demonstrations and recipe leaflets showing how to make the best use of rations. As imported wheat became scarce, the cartoon character 'Potato Pete' encouraged people to eat more potatoes. By January 1941 the usual overseas food supply had fallen to half what it had been. However, by 1942 ample food supplies were arriving through Lend Lease from the U.S. and a similar Canadian programme. Lend Lease was a gift and there was no charge. Most food was now rationed. Worried about children, Lord Woolton made sure that by 1942 Britain was providing 650,000 children with free meals at schools; about 3,500,000 children received milk at school, in addition to priority supplies at home. The bad news was that his "national loaf" of mushy grey wholemeal bread replaced the ordinary white variety, to the distaste of most housewives. Children were sad to learn that supplies of sweets were reduced to save shipping space on sugar and chocolate. Woolton kept food prices down; eggs and other items were subsidised. He promoted recipes that worked well with the rationing system, most famously the meatless "Woolton pie" which consisted of carrots, parsnips, potatoes and turnips in oatmeal, with a pastry or potato crust and served with brown gravy. Woolton's business skills made the Ministry of Food's difficult job a success and he earned a strong personal popularity despite the shortages. List of Ministers of Food Ministers of Food Control (1916–1921) Responsibilities transferred to the Board of Trade 1921–1939. Ministers of Food (1939–1958) Heathcoat-Amory jointly held the separate posts of Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries and Minister of Food 1954–55, pending their merger in 1955 when he assumed the post of Minister