Chicago Nutrition Association records, 1943-2001

The Chicago Nutrition Association (CNA) is an organization of professional nutritionists, including dietitians, home economists and doctors, located within the Chicago metropolitan area. CNA was established in 1942 as the Chicago Nutrition Committee, one of a network of state and local nutrition committees founded under the auspices of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services, Office of Emergency Management and later sponsored by the War Food Administration, Nutrition Programs Branch. Its original purpose was to educate the public about nutrition and to coordinate the efforts of various agencies dealing with nutritional problems. Their early activities were closely connected to World War II war efforts, with the Chicago Nutrition Committee distributing government pamphlets, training civil defense volunteers, and providing libraries, radio stations, and the newspapers with information about nutrition. The Committee worked with the War Rationing Board to publicize recipes and shopping information to help people make economical use of ration points and to devise programs for people on special diets requiring extra points. In April of 1944, the Chicago Nutrition Committee sponsored the "Improving Nutrition in Wartime Chicago" meeting and it later sponsored and planned a nutrition month based on the theme "Food Fights for Freedom".

In June of 1945 financial support from the War Food Administration was withdrawn, leaving the Committee to seek other funding to pay its staff. The Chicago Nutrition Committee eventually received monies from local industry and the Chicago Community Trust enabling them to continue as an independent organization. On January 26, 1946, the Committee was incorporated in the State of Illinois as a not-for-profit organization and renamed the Chicago Nutrition Association.

The Chicago Nutrition Association is run by a Board of Directors which is responsible for formulating general policies and securing adequate financial backing. The work of the Association is done by committees and sub-committees with the work of the Program Committee being the most important. The Program Committee is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the work of a number of committees, defining nutritional problems, and executing programs to combat them. One of the Association's persistent problems has been financial support, although monies from industry and the Chicago Community Trust enabled them to maintain an office and an executive secretary until 1950, In 1954, the Board of Directors decided to hire a part-time executive secretary to seek financial support from the general public and to open an office at the University of Chicago. However, this decision proved too costly and the Association had to once again rely on volunteers to provide secretarial service and the office was closed. In 1957, CNA established the contributing membership category to ease their financial worries with the result that businesses in the Chicago metropolitan area that deal with nutrition or food preparation were solicited for membership dues of at least $100 per year. The other two membership categories are 1) active - open to professional nutritionists and 2) associate - open to interested persons not qualified for active membership. By 1960, the Association was able to employ Office Assistants, Inc. to handle their secretarial duties and provide them with a permanent mailing address.

Since its beginning, the Association has played a major role in developing Chicago Public School lunch programs. In 1944, after conducting a survey of area schools hot-lunch programs, CNA offered to help the schools develop nutritional recipes, plan menus, address other problems concerning school lunches, and publish "The Dinner Bell", a publication for and about the hot-lunch program. The Chicago Nutrition Association also conducted surveys focusing on the nutritional habits of children and assisted area schools in establishing nutrition education programs.

CNA also sponsored special programs and projects. The Association maintains a Speakers' Bureau of qualified people who are available to speak on topics relating to nutrition. In 1948, CNA began to compile lists of books on nutrition and abstract book reviews for public libraries. The result was a bibliography entitled "Nutrition Reference and Book Reviews" originally published in 1963, CNA's special programs also included A Child Health Day (1950), A Nutrition Week (1953), a Weight Control television series (1957), a nutrition course at Northwestern University's evening division (1964), a poster contest for high school students (1977), and together with the Institute of Food Technology and the Illinois State Medical Society, a series of semi-annual nutrition symposia.

CNA records include annual reports, articles of incorporation, constitution and bylaws, a film, financial records, membership brochures and directories, Board of Directors' minutes of meetings, newsletters, photographs and slides, a tape recording, correspondence, television scripts, programs and bibliography pertaining to the work of the association. Materials are from 1943 through 1985 with the most thorough and complete coverage occurring in the 1970's and 1980's.

For information about supplements to this collection added in 1998 and 2002, please consult paper inventories located in the Special Collections Reading Room.

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The Chicago Nutrition Association records were donated to Special Collections, the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago in October, 1975 (accession 75- 102), March, 1980 (accession 80-22), March, 1981 (accession 81-39), November, 1985 (accession 85-44), and December, 1985 (accession 85-45).

Subsequent supplements to the collections were added in 1998 and 2002.

Chicago Nutrition Association Records, Special Collections, University of Illinois at Chicago.

The finding aid for this collection was revised from a collection description and inventory created during processing in 1979 (by Cathy Schallhorn), later added to in 1986 (by Sandra Florand Young), and then subsequently marked up for web presentation in July 2008.

The records are arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder. Original folder titles were retained, although several new folders marked with an asterisk were created by the archivist.

• NamesChicago Nutrition Association. -- Archives
• SubjectNutrition--Study and teaching.
• Geographic CoverageUnited States.