7 Cheap Recipes Straight From The Great Depression (2024)

FAQs

What did poor people eat in the Great Depression? ›

Many cheap foods still common among the poor today made their debut during the Depression: Wonder Bread (1930), Bisquick (1931), Miracle Whip (1933), and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (1934).

For some families, soup was the evening meal every night. Beans—navy, pinto, white, black-eyed—were a good substitute for meat during the Depression and were even an actual lifesaver in the 1930s.

Many of today's favorite snacks were also introduced during this decade: Twinkies, Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Fritos, 3 Musketeers, Ritz Crackers, Kit Kat Bars, Five-Flavor Life Savers, 5th Avenue Bars, Rolo, Smarties, Heath Bar, Lay's Potato Chips and RC Cola.

Some people chose to hunt for their food. Some people harvested their own bees to make honey. Other people went to soup kitchens, which are places where people can go and get a free meal. Since many people needed a free meal during the Depression, they often had to wait for hours in long 'soup lines' to be served.

Chipped Beef on Toast

Aside from hot dogs and beef, meat was in short supply during the Great Depression. Resourceful cooks came up with recipes like chipped beef on toast, which was made with small amounts of butter and milk and then put over toast.

During the Great Depression preceding the passage of the Social Security Act, "soup kitchens" provided the only meals some unemployed Americans had. This particular soup kitchen was sponsored by the Chicago gangster Al Capone.

1930s: School lunch and the New Deal

The program was so successful that by 1941 every state (plus Washington D.C.) had a lunch program in place. A typical school lunch at the time included items like veggie soup, peanut butter sandwiches, and the occasional piece of fresh fruit.

Try finger foods like devilled eggs, tea sandwiches, salted nuts, prawn co*cktail and canapés. Cakes were also very popular in the 1920s with red velvets, pound cakes and devil cakes popular.

The original Food Stamp Program (FSP) began toward the end of the Great Depression, in May 1939. While in operation, it provided vouchers to needy people that could be redeemed for food items. During its four years of operation, the program reached 20 million people, at a total cost of $262 million.

They were referred to as 'makeshift sandwiches'. There were butter and sugar sandwiches, onion sandwiches, ketchup sandwiches and raw carrots and salted peanuts sandwiches. Another using nuts were walnuts, mayo and some lettuce on bread.

What was popular during the Great Depression? ›

Radio programs, music, dancing and dance marathons, and cinema were popular forms of entertainment during the Great Depression. Many people affected by the economic downturn sought inexpensive ways to pass the time and distract themselves from the challenging circ*mstances.

Inexpensive amusem*nts included backyard games, puzzles, card games, and board games such as Monopoly, which was introduced in 1935. Even the national pastime, baseball, changed profoundly during the Great Depression.

They included: Kool-Aid powder drink, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Bisquick, Spam (precooked canned pork), Twinkies, Ritz Crackers, Lay's Potato Chips, cereals of Cheerios and Chex and Three Musketeers Bar. Maybe the most favorite item coming from the 1930s was the new Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies developed in 1938.