Great Depression Families

During the Great Depression, many families across America had to use desperate measures to get by. For example, food had to be rationed in common households. Children could only eat one piece of meat and if they wanted another piece, they weren’t allowed to eat it. Meat was too expensive at the time and parents could not afford to give their children more food even if they were that hungry. In addition, kids would steal food in order to survive. Because of the food that was rationed in their homes, some of these children resorted to these actions. Most kids realized this was wrong but they were so hungry that they still did it anyways. When situations got even tougher, parents were sometimes forced to send their children away to other family members. They wouldn’t be able to afford …show more content…
The Great Depression forced parents to deal with sickness in a new way as well. They couldn’t afford medicine anymore and so they couldn’t do anything but try to keep their children warm when they got sick. When people got more hopeless, they had to beg for money from the government. This money was usually used just to get heat and electricity back running in their homes. Typically, the reason why families had no heat or electricity was because the parents had lost their jobs. Then, during the day, they were forced to look for low-paying day jobs. These people had to fight through the crowds and hope that they were the five or six picked for the job. Others who couldn’t find a job were kicked out of their homes and forced to Hoovervilles. Hoovervilles were shacks made from cardboard where tons of people lived. Over the years, people began to riot against police because of their terrible condition. Nevertheless, it wasn’t just the poor that were affected by the Great Depression. More often than not, the richest had to sell all their belongings to get by. The richest people prior to the Great Depression were turning into the