[Jimmy Paterson]

The Role of SPAM® in World War II

As America entered World War II, SPAM luncheon meat played a crucial role overseas. With Allied forces fighting to liberate Europe, Hormel Foods provided 15 million cans of food to troops each week. SPAM immediately became a constant part of a soldiers' diets, and earned much praise for feeding the starving British and Soviet armies as well as civilians.

World War II generated a huge sales boost for Hormel Foods. Between 1939 and 1942, its net sales doubled to almost $120 million and annual pork processing reached an all-time high of 1.6 million head, mostly because of Uncle Sam. By 1944, 90 percent of all Hormel canned goods were going to military forces or military aid programs. That following April of 1945, more than 100 million pounds of SPAM luncheon meat had been shipped abroad.

SPAM was used as a B-ration - to be served in rotation with other meats behind the lines overseas and at camps and bases in the States. However, many times GIs were eating it two or three times a day.
SPAM was incorporated into the language of the war. Uncle Sam became Uncle SPAM, while food supply depots were SPAM Canyons. One military encampment in the South Pacific went so far as to dub itself SPAMVILLE. A photo of the camp showed the word SPAMVILLE painted on a makeshift watertower. A replication of SPAMVILLE is on display in the SPAM Museum.
Throughout 1943, Hormel Foods hired 448 women to replace men serving in the war.
Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev wrote, "Without SPAM we wouldn't have been able to feed our army."
The British relished the SPAM that came to them. Margaret Thatcher, then a teenager, vividly remembered opening a tin of SPAM on Boxing Day (an English holiday observed the day after Christmas). She stated, "We had some lettuce and tomatoes and peaches, so it was SPAM and salad."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a letter acknowledging the role of SPAM in World War II, stated that he ate his "share of SPAM along with millions of other soldiers." The letter was sent to retired Hormel President H. H. Corey in 1966. A copy of this letter is on display in the World War II section of the SPAM Museum.


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