Private charities and religious organizations were the first to open soup kitchens in the winter of 1929. In southeast Detroit, the Capuchin Services launched a soup kitchen on November 2, 1929, serving 1,300 to 3,000 people daily, according to the United States History website. Volunteers of America organized soup kitchens throughout the country, dedicating every resource to providing relief for millions of jobless, homeless and hungry people. These kitchens furnished a meal of bread and soup, because water was easily added to the soup to feed more people. Although some soup kitchens were serving as many as several thousand per day, many soup kitchens quickly reached their limits and had to turn latecomers away.
In addition to charitable initiatives, the Salvation Army, wood yards, employment agencies and “Penny Pantries,” in which items were priced at only a penny, contributed to relief efforts.
Wealthy individuals who had escaped the demise of the stock market, such as William Randolph Hearst, set up soup kitchens and contributed resources to relief. Even Chicago gangster Al Capone funded a soup kitchen, which served breakfast, lunch and dinner to the unemployed. In an attempt to burnish his public image, Capone used his own money to purchase provisions and clothes for the destitute.
President Hoover did not believe in government intervention, and staunchly advocated individual initiative. In the face of the crisis, he was more intent on balancing the budget than helping the unemployed. He felt that people should take care of themselves. Americans perceived President Hoover’s inaction as uncaring and began to blame him for the nation’s plight. Families disintegrated as men, who took off in search of work, became hobos. People who had lost their homes set up shanty towns constructed from garbage, which were known as Hoovervilles.
Because of their work ethic, starving Americans were resistant to charitable donations and help. They believed that something was wrong with them if they could not get a job. They were slow to fault a capitalist system run amok. At the same time, the federal government remained aloof and wedded to banking and business interests. However, the economy weakened further in the early 1930s, when 12 million Americans or approximately one-quarter of the workforce had no jobs. By this time, every town and urban center had scores of soup kitchens, which operated in local cafeterias, churches or outdoors.