ABSTRACT
The Field Foundation and the Citizen's Crusade Against Poverty formed the Citizen's Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States. Decades after the other major Western industrial nations had developed and begun to refine their welfare programs, the United States laid the foundation for a national welfare system with the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. The Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) was sold as a program for widows and their dependent children, and until 1950 only orphans and poor children received assistance. The goal of the Family Support Act (FSA) was to lessen considerably the time that families remain dependent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) by providing recipients with services such as education, job search skills, and career skills required by the labor force. To help states locate missing parents, the bill provided access to both Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and unemployment compensation data.
