90 pgs – Contents largely on the notes of meetings of the July, 1967 “Eat More Wheat Campaign” (EMWC) committee –on the preparation and the publicity for the Campaign. The campaign was mooted by Dy Prime Minister (DPM) to break Singaporeans’ dependence on rice. He foresaw that the peoples’ over-reliance on this staple food could make Singapore politically vulnerable, and any future shortage in the supply could lead to social unrest and hardship. Ministry of Culture and the Broadcasting Department (BD) led the education and publicity programme, while the Trade Department (TD) served as the link between the government and private agencies.
The Government agencies led by example, replacing some rice meals with wheat eg in hospitals, social welfare homes and at the Ministry of Interior and Defence. TD liaised with the flour millers (Prima and Khong Guan) and private sector food manufacturers, and food suppliers to see how they could promote the use of wheat flour. While the flour millers were willing to support the movement, they pointed out the challenge they faced was in creating demand and to find creative ways of using wheat flour in food preparation. It was also pointed out that the campaign target housewives as of the people ate at home.
BD’s publicity covered radio and TV advertising, food talks, features on flour production, cakes and biscuits and cooking competitions (using wheat).
Other file contents discuss the TV cooking competitions; compilation of the winning recipes, government hospitals’ experiments on how to cook wheat and their feedback, parliamentary question by Mr Ho See Beng, seeking details of the Campaign, and Prima Flour’s proposal to show an “Eat More Wheat Flour” film show in schools.
Jul 1967 - Nov 1969
AP 023
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