Filmed by the Gaumont Film Company established in 1895, this film shows the opening of York’s first National Food Kitchen by the Lord Mayor. Other early films within the Archive, original nitrate held by the National Film and Television Archive, are mainly documentary/actuality films that showcase local areas, but some are comedy sketches which seems to be typical of the Gaumont Film Company. National Food Kitchens were established during the First World War and were restaurants with an aim...

Filmed by the Gaumont Film Company established in 1895, this film shows the opening of York’s first National Food Kitchen by the Lord Mayor. Other early films within the Archive, original nitrate held by the National Film and Television Archive, are mainly documentary/actuality films that showcase local areas, but some are comedy sketches which seems to be typical of the Gaumont Film Company.

National Food Kitchens were established during the First World War and were restaurants with an aim of feeding people cheaply and economically as food supplies were scarce. This was due to the German U-Boat campaign that aimed to destroy British food import ships. Before the outbreak of the War, Britain relied heavily on the import of food. With as much as 60% of food being imported and during the war, there were major inflation in the prices of food, especially meat and bread. This meant that people could not feed their families, so the aim of the food kitchens was to feed the people simple meals at subsidised costs. The first National Food Kitchen was opened by Queen Mary in London in 1917, and by the late 1918 there were around 363 National Food Kitchens. These Food Kitchens were partly funded by state and could feed around 2,000 people per day, but after the war ended, local authorities were reluctant to keep funding these Food Kitchens. Six months after Armistice Day, around 120 of the Food Kitchens had closed.

Before the National Food Kitchens, there were soup kitchens which started to open across Britain in the late 18th century. They fed around 60,000 people daily in the London areas. However, these were highly associated with poverty and vagrants and were therefore outlawed by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. When the government set up the food kitchens, they did not want them to be similar to the soup kitchens as they wanted ordinary, everyday people to feel like they could attend the food kitchens without embarrassment.

In today’s society, we still have something very similar to soup kitchens and food kitchens, we now have foodbanks in local communities that aim to give non-perishable food to lower income families or those who need help. Foodbanks are becoming increasingly common due to the 2008 recession, Conservative Party austerity, welfare and benefit cuts that mean people are having to choose between feeding their family or paying their bills. In 2017, there were around 2,000 foodbanks in the UK, and it is presumed that this number has increased since then.