Feeding a Need: The Role(s) of Food in Settlement House Work

Feeding a Need: The Role(s) of Food in Settlement House Work

by Joyce Milambiling, Ph.D.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2705-0211

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Langston Hughes, from “Let America Be America Again” in A New Song (1936)

Between 1880 and 1920, it is estimated that more than 20 million immigrants entered the United States. These newcomers added to the number of people from around the world who had already settled in cities like Chicago, New York, and Boston. This was before the government, at any systematic level, assisted residents with housing, healthcare, and other vital services, and before social work emerged as a career field. Voluntary organizations, many of them initiated and staffed by women, were established across the country to confront the poverty and teeming cities brought about by rapid industrialization. One type of these voluntary, privately-funded organizations was the settlement house (Carson, 1990).

Building on the example of Toynbee Hall in England, Stanton Coit, Lillian Wald, and Vita Scudder, among others, brought the idea of settling in poor neighborhoods back to the United States as a “practical tool for remedying the cruelty, exploitation, and bleakness found in city life” (Berry, 1986). For over 140 years, settlement houses in the United States have been a catalyst for community-building and an example of what can be accomplished when essential needs are identified and lead to action. While settlement house funding and programming constantly adapt to change, responding to the essential human needs of food and shelter has remained ever-present in this work and can become a gateway to other benefits. Setting up food pantries in settlement house senior centers, for example, not only contributes to the recipients’ physical health, but they also connect these individuals to other community members and may enable older residents to remain in neighborhoods they call home. Once residents have availed themselves of what the settlement house has to offer, they discover the other resources available to them there. The provision of safe and affordable food, while an essential element in the work of the settlement house, may also achieve a variety of ends.

Access to food in low-income areas has been a perennial problem facing low-income populations in the United States. Settlement and neighborhood houses have a solid record of helping residents access affordable food and meet their current and future vital needs, in large part due to these organizations’ resourcefulness and resilience. This article will demonstrate how a combination of community-building ground in immediacy and mutual aid has been instrumental to settlement houses solving tangible problems and bringing about lasting social change.

Community-Based Service Delivery

Cities in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century were in desperate need of both immediate and long-lasting solutions to widespread poverty and a burgeoning population. Settlement houses were one of the voluntary organizations, many of which were led by women, that arose to “save the cities” by making them safer and more sanitary. Workers in settlement houses and other like-minded organizations also provided direct assistance to newcomers in the urban spaces most affected by industrialization and overcrowding  (Spain, 2001). Settlement houses were often the only places where families felt welcome and could receive healthcare services, attend English classes, and receive help finding a job. By forging relationships with their neighbors, settlement house workers experienced the triumphs and misfortunes of the neighborhood first-hand, and together they were able to determine which needs were the most pressing and seek solutions.

Settlement houses were, and continue to be, an integral and stable part of their neighborhoods. Those who lived and worked in Chicago’s Hull House maintained that the settlement house, “to be effective, must contain an element of permanency, so that the neighborhood may feel that the interests and fortunes of the [settlement house] residents are identical with their own. The settlement must have an enthusiasm for the possibilities of its locality” (Residents of Hull-House, ([1895] 2007, p. 151). Those committed individuals chose to be there, involved themselves with the community, and believed that improvement in that location and under the current conditions was possible. Hull House was an integral part of its South Halstead Street neighborhood from 1889 to 2012, and two remaining buildings are now a museum.

As urban conditions and demographics have changed, settlement houses have adjusted their programs and priorities, but research and reform are still vital to the settlement house enterprise (Hansan, 2011). The statistics and interviews gathered by settlement house workers in the past sparked awareness of issues like the proliferation of sweat shops, which led to laws regulating workplace conditions and child labor. Today, surveys and observations initiated by settlement house workers inform policy and programs that serve the homeless and refugees. Staff also continue to prioritize listening to local residents in order to remain a valued neighborhood resource. In the early days, settlement house workers (many of them young and female) moved into the buildings that housed the organization’s main activities, and they built trust through becoming familiar members of the neighborhood. Beginning in the 1920s, those who worked in the settlement house began taking up residence elsewhere, “and by the 1950s, the place of the residence as a central element in the program had long gone” (Berry, 1986). As years went on, many employees of settlement and neighborhood houses lived, grew up, or had family in the neighborhood. This is still common, as pointed out by Susan Stamler, Executive Director of United Neighborhood Houses: “Many of the staff live in the communities they serve. And many actually went to the programs that they’re now working in” (Berman, 2022). Trust in the settlement and its staff has taken on different forms over the years, and in the digital age this includes protection of identifying information due to employment, immigration status, and other sensitive factors.

“Settlement houses tend to be trusted messengers and trusted members of their communities.”
—Susan Stamler, Executive Director of UNH, in a 2022 interview

With time, some settlement houses have expanded or joined forces with other settlement houses or agencies, while a number of settlement houses have changed their names, moved, or closed altogether. Those that still operate in or near their original locations have maintained the tradition of operating multigenerational programs, and they remain a valuable asset to their neighborhood communities. In one sense, the settlement house itself has become a neighbor. Their stability, along with a time-tested flexibility, allows settlement houses “not only to react to the contingent issues of the community but also to plan for progressive change in the community” (Yan, 2004, p. 63). 

Food as Nourishment, Food as Reform

Food Security: Definitions

It is vital that individuals and families have physical access to food that is not only sufficient but also safe, nutritious, and, ideally, sustainable. In addition, food has to be affordable for people at different income levels. The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security is the United Nations body charged with assessing the science as it relates to world food security and nutrition. The panel has defined food security as “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (HLPE, 2020). When these conditions are not met, people are said to be food insecure, the degree of which can vary widely. The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of not only health care systems but also the means of food production and distribution worldwide, which in turn increased levels of food insecurity. 

A key trigger of food insecurity is the increase of food prices around the world, otherwise known as food inflation. This indicator, a part of the broader Consumer Price Index (CPI), signals changes in the price of essential food items and tends to have a greater impact on areas of the world affected by instability or conflict and on low-income households everywhere. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that “13.7 percent of U.S. households were food insecure in 2024, marking the highest prevalence of U.S. food insecurity in nearly a decade” (USDA, 2026). Global hunger in the 21st century has recently improved, but it continues to reach high levels in some parts of the world (WHO, 2025).

Settlement House Programs, Priorities, and Activism

The Early Years: 1886-1945

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, residents in tenement neighborhoods experienced extreme poverty, overcrowding, and inadequate sanitation. This was especially the case for newly arrived immigrants. As more and more people came to live and work in cities, there was a sharp increase in diseases like cholera and tuberculosis. Food and medical services were important to the work of the settlement house because they were a prime concern of those who were living under these conditions. Immigrants and other urban residents did not always have enough nutritious food to eat, and what was available to purchase was of inferior quality or not affordable.

The link between poor nutrition and widespread illnesses and chronic health conditions, particularly among children, was a major concern in urban neighborhoods at that time. Lillian Wald and other reformers “increasingly came to believe that urban problems like poverty, unsanitary housing, and poor medical care required public solutions, and they became advocates for expanding government’s role in fighting social ills” (Museum of the City of New York). In the absence of clear social policy, it was up to settlement houses and other privately funded organizations to identify the most pressing issues, implement solutions to help those most affected, and call for change. These organizations started on the local level by setting up community meals, offering cooking and nutrition classes, and providing a variety of medical and dental services.

Clinics housed in settlement houses offered vaccinations, check-ups, and prenatal care, and they diagnosed illnesses and conditions, all for free or at a low cost for neighborhood families. The nurses and doctors also proved to be a trusted source of advice for their clients. A report that presented the results of a study on “the food habits of a number of families in the congested districts of New York City in 1895 and 1896” stated that, “Previous to the study, [one] family had been much benefited by the suggestions of one of the University Settlement physicians concerning the selection of food materials” (Atwater & Woods, 1898, p. 12). When settlement houses implemented programs that improved the health of the local population and alleviated hunger, settlement workers could then direct those whom they assisted to educational, vocational, and other programs that could improve their lives in further ways.

The establishment of settlement houses had been primed by a growing awareness of the enormous social and economic gaps between rich and poor. Journalists, photographers, and writers known as “muckrakers” brought to the public’s attention the plight of the worker and the increasingly exploitative and often illegal business practices of the time. In his novel The Jungle, published in 1906, Upton Sinclair described the brutal working conditions and unsanitary practices in meatpacking plants in Chicago. Sinclair, an ardent socialist, was intent on evoking sympathy for the working class, but politicians and the public honed in on the issue of food safety and how it affected their own lives (Paul, 2017).

“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
—Upton Sinclair

Although a number of scientists and health practitioners at that time were aware of unsafe food practices, it was Upton Sinclair’s exposé of the meatpacking industry that prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to bring this information to the attention of the public and Congress. Florence Kelley, an experienced settlement house worker, collaborated with Roosevelt on food safety goals and legislation at the turn of the 20th century. Their persistence led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both of which passed into law in 1906 (Lewis, 2024). At the time, Kelley was Director of the National Consumer League, co-founded in 1899 by Jane Addams. The work of Addams and Kelley to protect communities, especially women and children, exemplified the action-oriented approach of those associated with settlement houses. 

Milk was another food product in need of protective legislation. The dairy industry had expanded as cities continued to grow, but there were no mechanisms in place to control the quality and safety of their products. Commercial methods for pasteurizing milk for wide distribution were slow to develop, and in the meantime, formaldehyde, chalk, and other substances were often added to the milk available in stores and delivered to homes. This put the public, including scores of children, at risk, and thousands of people of all ages and social classes died as a result. It took the work of medical researchers, politicians, business owners, and social activists to remedy it. Free or low-cost pasteurized milk was made available in milk stations and depots that were established in settlement houses such as the Elizabeth Peabody House in Boston and in other trusted locations. Legislation, starting with the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 and continuing with the Standard Milk Ordinance in 1924, served to make milk safer and less likely to lead to foodborne illnesses.

In 1900, one in four children died before they reached five years of age (Yarrow, 2011), and keeping young children healthy and well-cared for was a priority for the early settlement houses. Many immigrant women worked outside the home, and settlement houses were among the first places where free or low-cost childcare facilities and kindergarten classes were available to working mothers. While at the settlement house, young children received nutritious snacks and meals, and guidance was available for parents on healthy eating for the whole family. Each settlement house had their own system for providing meals to children of different ages. At Hull House, “Dinners are sold to school-children upon presentation of tickets that have been sold to their mothers for five cents each” (Residents of Hull-House, ([1895] 2007, p.164).

“We longed to have the children know the reality of the things they sang about, the birds and animals which so often formed the subject of their games.”
—The House on Henry Street, p. 59

It was common practice for settlement houses to operate day camps and sleep-away summer camps for children. Opportunities for children included day trips, camping, and homestays. These programs strained already tight operating budgets, and settlement house leaders sought donations specifically for their camping activities. Children who attended sleep-away camp consumed produce and other food items that were sourced locally. The amount of food available to children at camp was often more plentiful than many of them were used to, especially if youngsters came from families that were low-income or had many mouths to feed. 

Hiram House in Ohio was one of the 88 settlement houses that had established a rural camp by 1911 to supplement their work in the cities. Supporting the children’s nutritional health was a key priority: “Camp leaders regularly foregrounded their annual reports with data on the total number of meals served. In 1913, the leaders of Hiram House explained that there were 162 meals served to the children. This included 1,520 loaves of bread, 963.5 gallons of milk, 1,191 eggs, 157 pounds of butter, 47.5 bushels of potatoes, and 46 pounds of hot dogs’” (Meier, 2023, p. 268). Founded in 1896, this camp is still operational, although the original Hiram House location in the city of Cleveland closed in the 1940s. 

Settlement houses developed both the necessary infrastructure and professional expertise that could be relied on to respond to community needs promptly and efficiently (Yan, 2004). In the years between 1870 and 1920, economic depressions, World War I, and polio and flu outbreaks hit families hard, and settlement houses were there to help. During times of crisis, settlement houses continued to provide a safe haven for children in their early childhood and afterschool programs. Donors and staff provided cash assistance for needy families, set up food pantries and soup kitchens, and worked with community members to grow or share food.

During the Spanish flu epidemic from 1918 to 1920, settlement house leaders, staff, and volunteers were at the forefront of efforts to provide assistance to those afflicted by the disease. There was an especially urgent need for nursing care, whether in hospitals, people’s homes, or other locations. During a meeting in New York City on October 10, 1918, with representation from both public and private organizations, the Nurses’ Emergency Council (NEC) was formed. Lillian Wald of Henry Street Settlement was appointed as its head. To support its mission of recruiting nurses and nurses’ aides in New York City,  “The NEC immediately launched a publicity campaign in the Sunday papers. Its first ad, listed under the heading ‘A Stern Task for Stern Women,’ focused primarily on convincing nonprofessionals to join its fight against influenza” (Cimino 2024, p. 306). Wald has been credited with inventing the term, “‘public health nurse,’ hoping to prescribe a new role for nurses who visited the homes of the sick and the poor” (Buhler-Wilkerson, 1993, p. 1778). Staff and supporters of settlement houses throughout the country were also instrumental in preparing and delivering nourishing food to residents affected by the epidemic, especially those who were quarantined or looking after family members who were ill. In Minneapolis, Pillsbury House partnered with the Boy Scouts during the epidemic to open their own soup kitchen, and together they “delivered more than 350 quarts of soup every week to families in need” (Pillsbury United Communities). 

One of the major accomplishments of the second New Deal was the enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935, which has since undergone multiple revisions and continues to be a subject of debate in the legislature and in the public sphere. The Social Security Act provided a framework to ensure economic stability for older Americans, those who were disabled or injured at work, insurance for the unemployed, and economic aid for mothers, dependent children, and blind persons. In the decades that followed, such initiatives as food stamps (later renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), WIC (benefiting women, infants, and children), Medicaid, and housing assistance were established to bolster the productivity and health of the most vulnerable (Crouch, 2020).

1945 to the Present: Balancing Continuity and Change

As the years have gone by, neighborhood houses and community centers have been doing much of the same work as that of the settlement house. Members of organizations such as United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) and the International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Houses (IFS) cooperate with each other and pursue similar, and often the same, goals. To this day, settlement houses still direct their energy toward providing social services and engaging in social activism and advocacy work, and they “remain some of the most innovative organizations in urban social policy” (Sribnick, 2011, p. 27). 

Unlike the years when settlement houses depended almost completely on private donations solicited by individual organizations, public funding now provides the majority of settlement house operating costs. Dependence on state and federal funds can mean delays in monies reaching the service provider, risks that any one program or agency can be reduced or eliminated, or a reduction in the pool of grant money at a moment’s notice. Social service providers then have to scramble to procure loans, sell property, or find alternate sources to pay their vendors and maintain programs and centers.

Progressive Era laws in the 1930s and the array of social programs established in the decades immediately following and in the 1960s as a result of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty have afforded a measure of security to individuals and families in need of assistance. However, cutbacks in and changes to federal funding for social services over the decades have meant that individuals, families, states, and non-governmental agencies have had to fill in any gaps. Recent examples can be found in the termination of COVID-era federal Child Tax Credit payment increases, the expiration of temporary increases in SNAP benefits, and, in 2026, termination of health insurance subsidies paid by the government. Private foundations, faith-based organizations, individual city and state governments, and local non-profit agencies have increasingly been at the forefront of efforts to mend a social safety net that is rapidly shrinking and becoming more and more unavailable to those who need it the most in the 21st century. Two areas in which settlement houses have been effective in coming to the aid of communities when other resources are temporarily or permanently unavailable are disaster response and the protection and health of the elderly.

One example of an effective disaster response was during Hurricane Sandy, which in 2012 brought devastation to a number of communities in the Mid-Atlantic states.  In New York City, “The storm left hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without power, damaged critical public and private infrastructure, and left many New Yorkers vulnerable with limited access to food, drinking water, healthcare, and other critical services” (New York City Government). In the aftermath of the storm, University Settlement “coordinated distribution of supplies and cash assistance to neighbors even while a widespread power outage kept the lights off at our headquarters for weeks” (University Settlement). University Settlement, founded in 1886, was the first settlement house in the United States, and the fact that they continue to provide vital services to their Lower East Side neighborhood attests to the longevity and adaptability of these establishments.

Like the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the entire country and world. Community networks and non-profit organizations were often the first to provide relief in both rural and urban communities. In Lower Manhattan, community-based organizations and networks were instrumental in responding to the crisis and uncertainty that descended suddenly and had lasting effects. Settlement houses in the area, some of which are among the oldest in the country, quickly made use of their resources and community contacts, expanding services like food and supply deliveries to older adults and low-income families. In response to COVID-19, Henry Street Settlement “provided 14,000 meals a week, answered urgent phone calls through the community Helpline we launched in April 2020, and made weekly check-in calls to our senior citizen community members” (Henry Street Settlement, 2021). 

Although there are disparities in life expectancy by sex, race, income, and geography, people generally live longer now than they did in the late 1800s and early 1900s when settlement houses were first established in the U.S. In addition, the family structure has changed. It is now common for older adults to live at a distance from their families, and they often end up living alone. A study published by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, reported that “Of the 16 million older adults who live alone, 10 million are women . . . After age 74, nearly half of women and men living alone have difficulty with self-care, independent living, mobility, memory, hearing, or sight. In 2024, nearly 4 million women and 2 million men lived alone with at least one disability” (Scheckler, 2026). Even more alarming are statistics that show that the number of homeless elderly has skyrocketed in recent years (Eifert, 2024). This is an ongoing crisis, one that settlement and neighborhood house programs can play a key role in combating. 

“Maintaining food security is an immediate concern. If you know of anyone in need, please reach out as soon as possible.”
—South Boston Neighborhood House

Settlement and neighborhood house programs for older adults prioritize safety, nutrition, and food security, and programs and senior centers initiate and strengthen social contacts, both in-person and virtually. Typical services include “elderly-day centers, meals-on-wheels, telephone assurance, visitor and companion programs, chore and errand service, and help with business and legal matters. The neighborhood-based agency becomes the ‘family’ for frail and neglected elderly” (Berry, 1986). The Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House in New York City offers breakfast and lunch at their Older Adult Center as well as nutrition workshops. The Center’s services are supplemented regularly by the City Harvest Mobile Market which provides residents with free produce, and by New York Common Pantry’s mobile pantry program. A similar partnership exists between South Boston Neighborhood House Senior Center with the non-profit organization Ethos. Together they provide lunch on-site daily, and this Center has made food and nutrition an integral part of their services for older adults. These are just some examples of the growing emphasis that settlement houses have put on social connectedness and access to food that benefit older members of their communities.

Coming Full Circle

By demonstrating the value of community-based service delivery and building meaningful relationships, settlement houses have been credited with helping professionalize the fields of social work, nursing, and public health. In terms of transforming society, “settlements achieved many of the reforms they had worked for, such as kindergartens, playgrounds, truant officers, juvenile courts, visiting nurses, maternity and child care, and street cleaning and paving” (Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2013). These changes have improved the quality of life for many, as have publicly-funded food assistance programs such as SNAP, WIC, and the National School Lunch Program. Food-focused programs have contributed to the health and well-being of millions of adults and children, and SNAP alone “has been proven to not only enhance food security but also improve health outcomes, stimulate local economies, and reduce poverty” (Equity Advocates). 

There have been wins, but there have also been losses in social welfare policy in the United States. H.R. 1 of the 119th Congress, federal legislation signed into law on July 4, 2025, made “sweeping cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other low-income support programs . . . raising the risk that millions will lose access to basic healthcare, food aid, and assistance” (Kosek & Mo, 2026). In essence, these changes “signal to citizens what their government is and is not willing to do for them” (Kosek & Mo, 2026). These changes are significant, and they indicate a shift closer to the kinds of policies that existed, or failed to exist, at the turn of the twentieth century. Settlement houses provide information about changes in program eligibility and direct people to alternative sources of food and support if they lose benefits. In addition, settlement house directors and staff are frequently interviewed by the media and provide testimony to state and local boards and committees about shortfalls in the resources needed by the people they serve day after day and year after year. 

At the end of 2025, a lengthy U.S. government shutdown (NPR, 2025) put a spotlight on a long-acknowledged weakness in the social safety net in the United States, namely, increasing levels of food insecurity for a growing number of families. Food banks and non-profit agencies across the country sounded the alarm at the prospect of limited federal funding or none at all for those who depend, either temporarily or on a long-term basis, on SNAP benefits (Feeding America Statement, 2025). Farmers, ranchers, and others who rely on government programs or subsidies for growing, harvesting, and distributing food on a wide scale were also negatively affected as the shutdown dragged on.

Settlement houses throughout the United States “aimed to change the conditions of poor immigrant communities and the mindsets of both the poor and the privileged” (Cohen, 2012). These goals motivated everyday acts such as providing meals in times of crisis and serving as a safe gathering place. The founders and supporters of the original settlement and neighborhood houses believed that politicians, businesses, social service organizations, and urban residents could work together to identify and solve local problems, with the ultimate aim of achieving social and economic justice. If this wish had been fully realized, settlement houses and like-minded organizations would no longer be critical to the welfare of the public. Equitable distribution of resources, however, has yet to be realized in the United States, as evidenced by the persistence of issues like widespread hunger and food insecurity. This reality clearly demonstrates how settlement houses, along with their underlying philosophy, are still relevant more than 140 years after they were first established.

References

Atwater, W. O., & Woods, C.D. Dietary Studies in New York City in 1895 and 1896 (1898). Office of Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. https://archive.org/details/dietarystudiesin46atwa/page/7/mode/1up

Berman, G. (June 2022). Leader to Leader: Susan Stamler on the Evolution of the Settlement House Movement and Where it Stands Today. City and State, June. https://www.cityandstateny.com/nyn-media/2022/06/leader-to-leader-susan-stamler-on-the-evolution-of-the-settlement-house-movement-and-where-it-stands-today/374249/

Berry, M.E. (1986). The Settlement Movement 1886-1986: One Hundred Years on Urban Frontiers. New York, NY: United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA). 

Buhler-Wilkerson, K. (1993). Bringing Care to the People: Lillian Wald’s Legacy to Public Health Nursing. American Journal of Public Health, 83(12), 1778-1786. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.83.12.1778

Carson, M. (1990). Settlement Folk: Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement, 1885-1930. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Cimino, Eric C. (2024). The Supervisors are Carrying the Bag: The Nurses’ Emergency Council, Settlement Houses, and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New York City” (2024). Faculty Publications: History and Political Science. https://digitalcommons.molloy.edu/hps_facpub/1

Cohen, R. (2012). Death of the Hull House: A Nonprofit Coroner’s Inquest. Non-Profit   Quarterly, August 2. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/hull-house-death-nonprofit-coroners-inquest/

Crouch, L. (2020). Food Assistance in the United States. August 19. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/public-welfare/food-assistance-in-the-united-states/

Eifert, M. (2024). The Elderly Homeless Crisis: History and Origins. Social Welfare History Project. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/housing/elderly-homeless-crisis-history-and-origins/

Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2013. Settlement Houses. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/settlement-houses/

Equity Advocates. SNAP 4All New York. https://www.nyequityadvocates.org/snapforallny

Feeding America (2025). Feeding America Statement: A Government Shutdown Will Strain Families and Food Banks (Attributed to Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America), October 1. https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/press-room/feeding-america-statement-government-shutdown-oct-2025

Hall, G. (2018). The Lessons We Should Learn from Settlement Houses. Women Change Worlds, June 21. https://www.wcwonline.org/WCW-Blog-Women-Change-Worlds/The-lessons-we-should-learn-from-settlement-houses

Hansan, J.E. (2011). Settlement houses: An introduction. Social Welfare History Project. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/settlement-houses/settlement-houses/

Henry Street Settlement. (2021). COVID-19 Updates at Henry Street Settlement, September 28. https://www.henrystreet.org/news/latest-news/covid-19-updates-at-henry-street-settlement/

HLPE (2020) Food Security and Nutrition: Building a Global Narrative towards 2030. A Report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome. 

Hull-House Residents [1895] (2007). Hull-House Maps and Papers. University of Illinois Press, 

Kosek, K., & Mo, C.H. (2026). Shrinking Welfare in the United States Will Bring Political and Social Consequences. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 8. https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2026/01/shrinking-welfare-benefits-united-states

Lewis, T. (2024). The Sordid History of U.S. Food Safety Highlights the Importance of Regulation. Scientific American, May 21. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-sordid-history-of-u-s-food-safety-highlights-the-importance-of/

Meier, D. (2023). Secure from the World’s Contagions: Settlement House Summer Camping in the Progressive Era. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 22(3), 260–277.

Museum of the City of New York. Settlement Houses: Houses of Welcome 1886-1925 (Exhibition). https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/settlement-houses

National Public Radio (2025). ‘Uncharted territory’: Ongoing shutdown threatens food aid for 42 million people, October 27. https://www.npr.org/people/2100815/jennifer-ludden

New York City Government. Impact of Hurricane Sandy. https://www.nyc.gov/site/cdbgdr/hurricane-sandy/hurricane-sandy.page

Paul, C. A. (2017). The Progressive Era. Social Welfare History Project.  https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/civil-war-reconstruction/progressive-era/

Pillsbury United Communities. Our History. https://pillsburyunited.org/about/history/

Residents of Hull House  (2007 [1898]). Hull-House Maps and Papers. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Scheckler, S. (2026). Living Longer with Less: The Financial Burdens on Older Women. Joint Center on Housing Studies, April 1. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/living-longer-less-financial-burdens-older-women

Sinclair, U. [1906] (2003). The Jungle. New York: NY: Barnes and Noble Classics.

South Boston Settlement House. www.sbsh.org

Spain, D. (2001). How Women Saved the City. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Sribnick, E. (2011). Settlement Houses: The Original Community-based Family Resource Centers. Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness. ICPH_UNCENSORED_2.3_HistoricalPerspective_SettlementHouses.pdf 

United Neighborhood Houses. SNAP4 All New York: Creating a State Food Benefit for Excluded New Yorkers. https://www.unhny.org/reports.

University Settlement. Our History. https://www.universitysettlement.org/about/history/

USDA (2026). Food Security in the U.S.—Key Statistics and Graphics. February 18. https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=1136220.

WHO (World Health Organization) (2025). Global Hunger Declines, but Rises in Africa and Western Asia: UN Report. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-07-2025-global-hunger-declines-but-rises-in-africa-and-western-asia-un-report

Woodward, E. (1937). Hot Lunches for a Million School Children. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/hot-lunches-million-school-children/)

Yan, M. C. (2004) Bridging the Fragmented Community, Journal of Community Practice, 12(1-2), 51-69, DOI: 10.1300/J125v12n01_0

Yarrow, A.L. (2011). A History of Federal Child Antipoverty and Health Policy in the United States Since 1900, Child Development Perspectives, 5(1), 66–72.

Further Reading 

Primary sources abound on the subject of settlement houses in the U.S. This is just a partial list, and some of these books can be found in the local library. 

Addams, J. [1910] (1999). Twenty Years at Hull-House. New York: Signet Classics.

Arnold, C. Settlement House Girl: Growing up in the 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (2020). Eat My Words Books. 

Wald, L. (1915). The House on Henry Street. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 

Wald, L. (1934). Windows on Henry Street. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

Warach, B.. (2011). Hope: A Memoir. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. 

For Young Readers

Arnold, C. (1998). Children of the Settlement Houses. Minneapolis: Carlrhoda Books.

Krull, K. (2020). The Only Woman in the Photo: Frances Perkins and Her New Deal for America. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Stone, T. L. (2015). The House That Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

© Joyce Milambiling, 2026

Joyce Milambiling is the recipient of a 2026 VCU Publishing Research Award.