Soup Kitchens
Soup Kitchens started in 1929 and were first run by churches or private charities. A popular soup kitchen was the Capuchin Service Center, that served 1500-3000 people. By the mid 1930's the government began to fund them. This resulted in every city and town to have a kitchen. Soup kitchens served soup and bread and if there were a lot of people, cooks could just add more water to the soup so there was enough for everyone.
Shantytowns
Shantytowns appeared when people began to be evicted from their homes. When there began to be many shantytowns and homeless people, they looked towards the government to help. But because President Hoover didn't believe in involving the government in the economy, they recieved no help. They were so angry that they called their towns hoovervilles instead of shantytowns. Their hoovervilles were made up of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and many other materials. Some homes were shacks, some were 20 ft high and others were holes in the ground. Most of the time, hoovervilles were built by rivers for a water source. Some hoovervilles were made up of 100 people or some were made up of thousands such as as St.Louis, Missouri. The bigger hoovervilles had actual mayors, churches and social activities.
Everyday Life
The Great Depression greatly affected everyone's lives, no matter if you were rich or poor. One of the effects of the great depression was schooling. Many kids stopped going to school because they had closed down from the lack of funding. Food was also scarce as farmers were hit very hard during this time. They didn't have the money to collect the crops so the crops would rot in the field. This lack of food led to 20.5 percent of children having malnutrition. Because of this, many fell ill as diseases were everywhere. Many teenagers couldn't find jobs, so they felt like a burden and ran away. They "lived on the rails" as they traveled by freight trains. Meanwhile at home, women were the homemakers as they had to make do with everything they had at home. Much like teens, whole families would live out of their car and travel everywhere to find a job. These 25,000 families were called vagrants. The Great Depression also lowered social class. Middle class did often fall into the lower class category as even college educated people couldn't find jobs.