Florence Petty

Florence Petty.
Florence Petty (1 December 1870 – 18 November 1948) was a Scottish social worker, cookery writer and broadcaster. During the 1900s she undertook social work in the deprived area of Somers Town in North London, demonstrating for working-class women how to cook inexpensive and nutritious foods. Much of the instruction was done in their homes. She published cookery-related works aimed at those also involved in social work, and a cookery book and pamphlet aimed at the public. From 1914 until the mid-1940s she toured Britain giving lecture-demonstrations of cost-efficient and nutritious ways to cook, including dealing with food shortages during the First World War. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was a BBC broadcaster on food and budgeting. Petty worked until she was in her seventies. She is considered to be a pioneer of social work innovations. Her approach to teaching the use of cheap nutritious food was a precursor to the method adopted by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War.