Soup Kitchens

The earliest references to soup kitchens, in 1826, describe communal areas within cultural venues, such as theaters and charity balls, where meals were served to staff as payment for their services. The term was popularized in 1839 to denote establishments serving minimum dietary essentials to needy people. In 1847 the British government passed the Temporary Relief Act, also known as the Soup Kitchen Act, which replaced public works as the main form of relief to the Irish during the potato famine. As the name implies, the act was to be provisional, for the summer months, ending at harvest.