Marian Spore Bush - Philanthropist

Philanthropist

As a wealthy Park Avenue (New York) resident, Marian Spore operated a soup kitchen for the poor and needy in New York City's Bowery section, beginning in 1927. By February 1930 she worked four months annually, from January until April, relieving a populous of unskilled labor. During the Great Depression a growing breadline formed a streetwide T from Second Avenue (Manhattan) to the Bowery. It extended for a city block and a half.

Marian Spore distributed more than $1,300 weekly in meal tickets purchased from the Y.M.C.A. at 22 East Third Street. She provided alms for the feebled, crippled, and the starving. Four tickets purchased for a nickel each made up the smallest semi-weekly ration. Spore added a small colored ticket which was paired with meal tickets. The colored ticket gave one admittance to a small headquarters composed of two rooms, located at 24 East Third Street. On the next day of distribution the ticket holder could enter the building where Spore spent two hours every Monday and Thursday. Inside the headquarters, converted from a squalid tenement, she carried out the distribution of pants, overcoats, shoes, and other clothing, which Spore bought from stores which sold to her.

In February 1930 Spore left her Park Avenue apartment for several weeks. However, her chauffeur, a Y.M.C.A employee, continued to give out meal tickets and clothing to the disadvantaged.