Topic summary
Soup kitchens
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Soup kitchen.
The United States
Soup kitchens were an iconic image of the early Great Depression particularly in the early days when emergency privately funded soup kitchens were set up. One soup kitchen in Chicago was sponsored by American mobster Al Capone in an apparent effort to clean up his image. This began to change with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933. Federal programs, particularly the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA), funneled millions of dollars for direct cash relief and work-relief jobs. This strategy fundamentally shifted the social safety net from private, direct-food charity to government-funded employment and assistance. As thousands began receiving a federal paycheck or a relief check, the massive emergency soup kitchens of the early Depression were gradually diminished, superseded by a new national system of support.