A serving is the part of the meal that corresponds to a person, that is, their portion. This term comes from the Latin ratio, which means measure.
Generally this word is used in situations in which food must be distributed among a large number of individuals. For example, in the army it is used normally. Thus, all the food destined for the troops (the ranch) is divided individually into rations.
Main focus on food issues
While it can be used figuratively when spoken colloquially (those punks got their fair share of beatings), it’s in the context of food where it has its true meaning. It must be taken into account that in order to organize the distribution of food for many people, it is necessary to carefully calculate what corresponds to each one in relation to the quantity and, logically, with the purchase price and weight of the food (this task is known as the scandal of a plate).
The idea of a food ration is related to very diverse fields: diets, gastronomy, the army, animal farms, etc.
Times of rationing and black market
The verb to ration expresses the action of distributing and has a special meaning in periods of hunger or scarcity, where food, water and basic products must be distributed so that they can reach the largest possible number of people.
Need for control to maintain balance in catastrophic situations
In some countries in emergency situations it has been necessary to incorporate control measures for the basic sustenance of the entire population and “ration cards” have been introduced. These cards are managed by the state to guarantee sustenance in times of deep crises, humanitarian catastrophes, periods of war, etc. Through this system, each individual has in his card the list of food that he has received legally. This circumstance was experienced, for example, in Spain when the civil war ended (the primers were in force between 1939 and 1952).
The black market in the face of need
In most cases, when there is a shortage of food and ration cards are imposed, an illegal trade or black market appears in parallel. Curiously, in Spain a very singular word is used to refer to him, estraperlo. Estraperlo is a term formed with the names of three con artists (Strauss, Perle and Lowann) who devised a trick roulette wheel and bribed a series of politicians from the 30s to introduce it in some casinos. When the deception was discovered, there was talk of the “black market scandal”, and this word was installed in our language as a synonym for illegal trade.
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