Why Soup Kitchens Were An Ordinary Aspect Across Canada During The Great Depression

This photograph is tied to the Great Depression which hit Canada from 1929 – 1939. It shows a group of men lined up for a soup kitchen. Around 1933 a year before the photo was taken, around 30 percent of employable Torontonians were jobless. By 1934, when this photograph was taken, 120,000 unemployed Torontonians were on relief. The photographer might have been hired by the Canadian government to take this photo to promote soup kitchens for the people who couldn’t afford a meal on the table. Photographers working for the federal government produced the most enduring images of the Great Depression. This photograph, signifies how the Government dealt with the effects of Great Depression.

Value – In one or two well-written paragraph(s) explain

People have to wait in line for several hours, simplify for a bowl of soup. Hunger was one of the prime concerns of people in contrast to health because there were only very few places where something was found to eat. When they got to the place like the one in my photograph, they had to wait until they had their turn. Multiple people became sick after the consumption of soup from places like this. This clearly was a serious affair and this photograph is valuable to historians as it reflected how the Great depression impacted many people. Judging from how the photo is taken and set-up by the photographer, it is clear that the subjects of the photograph are unaware that they are being photographed. Judging from the fact that they are not in a single file and are all engaging in conversation among each

The fact that these men had to resorted to soup kitchens like this for daily meals, because they can’t afford a meal on the table due to the economical situation fluctuating causing many of them to lose here jobs, creates sympathy for the men lined up in the photograph. It is a very straight to the point photograph, it is what it is making a direct statement about the seriousness of the Great Depression and what It is resulting in. This could of possibly be done on purpose to allow the people viewing the photo to sympathize with the subjects. Soup kitchens were considered a key aspect for the people in the 1930s daily life. Almost every city and town had soup kitchens to accommodate the poor some people went to the extent of (5) arguing that soup kitchens were preferable to the "police station