America Eats - 1930s WPA Chronicle of Food, Ritual and Celebration at The Library of Congress

Fish Fries, political BBQs, family reunions — during the 1930s writers were paid by the government to chronicle local food, eating customs and recipes across the United States. America Eats, a WPA project, sent writers like Nelson Algren, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and Stetson Kennedy out to document America’s relationship with food during the Great Depression.

When we were searching for Hidden Kitchens and stories about how people come together through food we opened up a phone line on NPR and asked the nation for their ideas. Mark Kurlansky, author of Choice Cuts: Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History told us about America Eats, a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in the 1930s that sent writers throughout the country to document foodways.

Each region had its own America Eats team. Their writings, photographs and even some scripts for a proposed weekly radio program are tucked away in collections around the country — at the New York Municipal Archive, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the University of Iowa Library, and the State Library and Archives of Florida, as well as at the Library of Congress.

Producer Jamie York and The Kitchen Sisters follow the story to the Library of Congress and beyond.

Produced by Jamie York and The Kitchen Sisters. Mixed by Jeremiah Moore. In collaboration with Tim Folger, Jay Allison, Laura Folger, Kate Volkman, Melissa Robbins, Viki Merrick, Sydney Lewis, Chelsea Merz and Susan Leem.

The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We're part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of  podcasts created by independent producers — some of the best stories out there. Find out more at Radiotopia.fm and kitchensisters.org.