The Great Depression -- Soup Kitchens

Amy -- you might want to direct your daughter to investigate the 1930s soup kitchens. Here is one article I grabbed from the internet.

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The Great Depression divided our country into the "haves" and "have nots." Most people found it hard to put food on the table. Folks lucky enough to work often toiled long hours far from home. Many more found their "daily bread" on food lines. Roosevelt's New Deal programs often included meal componnents. Modern appliances (electric refrigerators and stoves) were not yet the norm, though canned and packaged goods proliferated. Upper escheolon menus were built the old fashioned way (around the seasons) rather than relying on the availability of fancy imports.

SOUP KITCHENS

1930s soup kitchens were run/funded by charitable organizations (religious groups, Ladies Aid Societies, Salvation Army etc.), community service groups, government agencies, companies, and private individuals. They relied on volunteers and donations. Depression-era Brooklyn soup kitchens most likely served different food from those in Cleveland, Houston and Bakersfield. This would have reflected the local tastes and available produce. Many other countries experienced Depression circumstances during the 1930s...their soup kitchen menus could have been altogether different.

During the Depression (as is now) food/soup kitchen cooks were experts at maximizing whatever they had on hand to serve that night. What they served, and how they served it, depended upon the facility (how big was the kitchen?), local support (food donations?), and the number of people who needed help (how far to stretch?). Sometimes the best soup kitchens could do was dole out bread and and coffee. Sometimes they could offer other foods (cakes, cookies, casseroles) donated by local charitable organizations, grocery stores or restaurants.

More fortunate people where encouraged to grow "charity gardens" so that the soup kitchens could offer fresh fruits and vegetables. The most notorious of American soup kitchens was funded by Al Capone, in Chicago. According to the papers, his consitutents ate better than most.

Food notes from the New York Times:
"Soup kitchens and the missions state that they can always get meat scaps and day-old bread, frequently for nothing and always for very little, but the vegetables that make up the bulk of the soups and stews which they serve are few and far between, and those they can afford are poor and stale. Arrangements are being made to have baskets at the Grand Central and Pennsylvania Statesion to recieve contributions of fruit and vegetables brough in on trains."
---Urges "Charity Gardens," New York Times, April 14, 1932 (p. 18)
"Three meals are served each day, including Sundays. Breakfast consists of coffee and a sweet roll, and dinner and supper of soup, bread and coffee, with a second or third helping permitted."
---Capone Feeds 3,000 a Day in Soup Kitchen, New York Times, November 15, 1930 (p. 4)
"Dozens of jobless men today recieved food from "soup kitchens" as the city opened temporary commisaires to care for hungry families. Mayor Hoan, a Socialist, ordered the old policy armory kitchen thrown open tomorrow as a municipal kitchen. Temporary headquarters gave bread, milk, cheese and coffee to the hungry today."
---Milwaukee opens "Soup Kitchens," New York Times, March 6, 1930 (p. 24)
"...families will be supplied with tickets entitling them to soup, and probably bread, every day. The meat and vegetables will be donated by other members of the district, and the funds to operate the kitchen have already been provided."
---15th A.D. to Install a Soup Kitchen, New York Times, February 21, 1933 (p. 21)
[NOTE: the 15th district was considered a wealthy neighborhood. That it was installing a soup kitchen for its residents was a sad sign of the times.]

Why soup?
Throughout time, in almost every culture and cuisine, soups and have been the primary foods consumed by people with not much money. It is economical (can be composed of whatever the cook has on hand that day...can be stretched to feed more by adding liquid), simple to cook (one large pot, does not require much in the way of fuel/cooking appliances/utensils), easy to serve (requires only a bowl/cup and a spoon, in a pinch it can be sipped without a spoon) and requires minimal clean-up. Bread also has a long history of filling empty bellies during the worst of times.