Soup kitchens are common across the United States. But does anyone know how or when they were actually started?
Although no one knows exactly when or where the first soup kitchen started, the concept of feeding the hungry has been prominent throughout history. Soup kitchens generally boom in popularity during economical or financial crises. For example, soup kitchens became mainstream during the Industrial Revolution in 18th century England, when machinery replaced many of the poor workers’ jobs in the country. Soup kitchens based on philosophies of the German Count Rumford, an early proponent of food aid for the poor, popped up all over England, especially in London, but died out as the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution wore off.
Soup kitchens arrived in America en masse during the Great Depression in the 1930s. First run by churches and charities, governments began their own centers by the mid-1930s. Soup was originally served because water could be added to the broth to serve more people, but as their popularity grew and soup kitchens became more widespread, more entrees were added until soup kitchen offerings began to resemble the varied menus seen today.
Today, soup kitchens operate in many cities throughout the United States. They are well known as places for people that are down on their luck to go for food, warmth, and a feeling of family. The kitchens have become essential to many people and families as they weather economic hardships in the faltering economy. The Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center is one of these places. Located in Morristown, New Jersey, the Community Soup Kitchen opened in 1984 and has never closed its doors since its opening, serving food through holidays, snowstorms, and even super-storm Sandy.
Unlike early soup kitchens such as ones during the Great Depression, The Community Soup Kitchen offers much more than the original meal of watery soup and bread. The CSK, like many soup kitchens across the United States, works to offer as diverse a meal as possible to ensure the full nutrition of its clients. The CSK is well known in particular for offering a Healthy Choices Market twice a week for anyone in the community. Families come to get fresh fruit and vegetables free of charge.
Additionally, soup kitchens used to be limited to a kitchen and dining hall where people down on their luck came for a meal, usually soup. The CSK has expanded far beyond this original mold for a soup kitchen since it’s opening to offer such varied services as employment counseling, nursing consultations, and mental health counseling. It has altered how people think of soup kitchens to more than just somewhere to eat lunch. Today, the CSK and many other soup kitchens around the US have become more like their own communities.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1660.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_kitchen