Al Capone's soup kitchen during the Great Depression, 1931

Al Capone started one of the first soup kitchens. The kitchen employed some people but fed many. In fact, before the passage of the Social Security Act, "soup kitchens" such as those that Al Capone had established provided only food that some unemployed Americans had.

He was in the U.S. during the Great Depression. emerged prominently. One of the first and obvious benefits of soup kitchens was to provide a place where the homeless and poor could get free food and some rest from the struggle to survive on the streets.

Al Capone was a gangster who made money through bootlegging during prohibition. Being charitable with some of the money he made to run his criminal enterprise was a bit of a Robin Hood mystery.

During prohibition (the period from 1920–1933 in the United States when alcohol was illegal) a bootlegger (made/distributed) was seen by the public as an acceptable, glamorous, even bravery was. But it is well known that he had brutal methods of killing enemies, extorting local businesses, bribing government officials, intimidating witnesses.

Al Capone's intentions were an attempt to clean up his image. The Chicago Tribune titled December 1931, "120 000 meals served by Capone's Free Soup Kitchen." Al Capone's Soup Kitchen became one of the strangest destinations Chicagoans have visited. An army of hungry, hungry men gathered three times a day near a storefront at 935 South State Street, feasting on Al Capone's generosity.

Toasting your health. Telling the Newspapers that Capone was going to cover the entire U.S. They were doing more for the poor than the government. He was also giving jobs to some of them.

Capone used his good deeds to get all the favorable publicity he deserved. He came down and walked among the people, shaking hands with the great Al Capone, offering a heartfelt smile and words of encouragement.

During November and December, Al Capone's soup kitchen held regular hours, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Thanksgiving Day 1930 was a special public relations triumph for Capone.

That day he could boast that he fed a hearty beef stew to over 5,000 hungry men, women and children. The kitchen was demolished in the 1950s, but it was located at the corner of 9th and State Street. The site is now a parking lot.