MEMBER for Light and opposition spokesperson for veterans’ affairs Tony Piccolo has been working with the War Windows Guild of SA to promote the sale of Anzac Day biscuits in support of war widows.

The new ‘Soldiers Oats Biscuits’ have been made in the Adelaide Hills and are a fundraising initiative as a result of research undertaken by Allison Reynolds for her book, Anzac Biscuits: The power & spirit of an everyday national icon.

Ms Reynolds approached Lobethal-based Adelaide Hills Foods to see if they would partner with the War Widows’ Guild, with the ingredients based on a recipe in the 1917 publication The War Chest Cookery Book.

Mr Piccolo said the aim of the project was to make a biscuit like those made during World War I.

“There were many food shortages at the time because of the war effort, so many modern-day Anzac biscuits do not include the traditional ingredients of the biscuits of the day,” he said.

The biscuits are available from most independent grocery stores and supermarkets, including Drakes and She’s Apples in Gawler, and Foodland and IGA outlets elsewhere.

The War Widows Guild was founded by Jessie Vasey when her husband alerted her to the plight of WWI widows.

Mr Piccolo said when Mrs Vasey’s own husband was killed during WW2, she came to understand the desperate situation of women widowed through war.

“There was no pension for war widows at that time, and very little support at all,” Mr Piccolo said.

According to current Guild president, Jan Milham, Mrs Vasey, almost single-handedly, founded The War Widows’ Guild in 1945 – a self-help organisation that assisted women widowed through war to come to terms with their loss and sacrifice and to provide for themselves and their children.

Ms Milham said the Guild’s motto, “We all belong to each other. We all need each other. It is in serving each other and in sacrificing for our common good that we are finding our true life” exemplifies the spirit of Jessie Vasey.