"People were hungry during the Depression and the Dust Bowl."
yup; those were the seminal events in making us realize we could either become civilized or return to the jungle.
We chose the path which led towards JFK's shining city on the hill, led by the Mafia, so to speak.
As I said, you might want to pick the point when the criminal/private/religious sector became overwhelmed.
When soup kitchens first appeared, they were run by churches or private charities. The Capuchin Services Center in southeast Detroit, for example, served 1,500 to 3,000 people a day. That center opened on November 2, 1929. Volunteers of America also was important in setting up soup kitchens all over America. By the mid-1930s, state and federal governments also were operating them. Soup kitchens served mostly soup and bread. Soup was economical because water could be added to serve more people, if necessary.
At the outset of the Depression, Al Capone, the notorious gangster from Chicago, established the first soup kitchen. He started it because he wanted to clean up his shady image. Capone`s kitchen served three meals a day to ensure that everyone who had lost a job could get a meal. Every city and town had a soup kitchen. If a hungry person happened to be out in the country, he or she would have to travel to a nearby community to get a meal. Kitchens would either be run outdoors, in churches, cafeterias, or service centers.
u-s-history.com |
