A personal document that defined the quantity of rationed goods and foodstuffs that could be purchased in a fixed period. Immediately dubbed the “hunger card” by the population, it was the payment for the country’s food resources, which the state had confiscated, distributing them in small portions.
In Italy it was reintroduced by ministerial decree in 1940 and was issued by the municipality, nominative and bimonthly; it allowed to go to a usual supplier, on pre-established dates, to reserve and book initially only food, later also other goods, such clothing. The shopkeeper detached the reservation slip by adding his signature and days after the products could be collected. The booking and collection dates for food were announced via posters and articles in newspapers which followed one another at a paradoxical pace. On the card were symbols representing the total monthly consumption of pasta, oil and sugar. Bread, on the other hand, was distributed daily, no more than 500 grams at the beginning of the war, later reaching around 100 grams.