The week in history: From one Chicagoan to another 2,000

As reported by the Chicago Daily News, sister paper of the Chicago Sun-Times:

The coronavirus pandemic has hit Chicago hard, especially those facing food insecurity. Thankfully, many Chicagoans have pitched in to help local food depositories and restaurant workers, who have been hit especially hard.

In 1932, a generous Chicagoan helped feed 2,000 homeless and jobless men on the North Side by giving generously to a local church, according to a March 5, 1932, report from the Chicago Daily News.

“The biggest breadline of the year at 921 North Wells Street today revealed the benefactor to be Kenneth Smith, president of the Pepsodent Company,” the report said.

Since the previous October, Smith had given $2,000 each month (roughly $37,760 in 2020 dollars) to the Immanuel Baptist church, then under the supervision of Rev. Johnston Myers. Myers told a Daily News reporter that even when Smith was a boy in Sunday school, “he was interested in helping others.”

“The cost is approximately $2,000 per month,” Myers said, “but Mr. Smith has been glad to bear the expense alone because of the good he can do.”