Second in a series about the top stories of the 20th Century.
"The primary purpose was to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership." — President Heber J. Grant, October 1936 general conference.
President Grant's words defined the thrust of the new Church Security Plan, inaugurated during the previous April general conference.
The plan, now called the Church Welfare Program, came into existence because of the consequences of the Great Depression which forced more than 88,000 Latter-day Saints onto relief, some one-sixth of whom were on relief due to unemployment.
Idleness became a serious problem in the nation, and Church leaders were concerned about its effect on families.
President Grant had personally overseen the birth of the welfare program. It started with 12 Church welfare regions in Utah, Idaho, California and Arizona, which were created within the first two weeks of its existence.
Before the welfare program was inaugurated, a Churchwide survey to determine the condition of the Latter-day Saints was conducted by the First Presidency through the Presiding Bishopric. The survey, as of September 1935, showed that 88,460 members were receiving relief, with 80,247 receiving help from the county and 8,213 from Church funds. Of the total number, 13,455 members were on relief due to unemployment. (May 1936, Improvement Era.)
A "right to labor," as described in the September 1936 Improvement Era,was an impetus of the program, which helped to change the harsh effects of the Great Depression within the Church.
Six decades later, the program continues to bear fruit.
"The guiding principles of the Church Welfare program are as applicable today as when first spoken," said President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency. "This program is inspired by our Heavenly Father."
President Gordon B. Hinckley is chairman of the General Welfare Committee. Serving with him are his counselors, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, and members of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Presidency of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, the Relief Society general presidency and the managing director of the Welfare Services Department.
President Monson is chairman of the Welfare Executive Committee. Serving with him are President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency; Elders Russell M. Nelson and Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve; Elders Earl C. Tingey and Marlin K. Jensen of the Presidency of the Seventy; Presiding Bishop H. David Burton and his counselors, Bishops Richard C. Edgley and Keith B. McMullin; Relief Society Gen. Pres. Mary Ellen Smoot, and Harold C. Brown, managing director of Welfare Services.
President Monson said, "The guiding principles of the Church Welfare program and humanitarian service efforts are based on the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.
"The holy scriptures leave no doubt concerning the responsibility to care for the poor, the needy, and the downtrodden. J. Reuben Clark, who served long in the First Presidency, once gave me counsel as a young bishop. He urged me to know all of the members of my ward, to understand their circumstances, and to minister to their needs."
President Monson said that one day President Clark read to him the account of the Savior's compassion for the widow of Nain, whose son He raised from the dead. (See Luke 7:11-15.) "When President Clark closed the Bible," President Monson continued, "I noticed that he was weeping. In a quiet voice, he said, 'Bishop, be kind to the widow and look after the poor.' "
That counsel, President Monson said, pertains to all. Everyone, he said, should open his or her heart to the blessing of those in need.
The fruits of the welfare program are evident. In 1998, 50,193 Latter-day Saints were placed in gainful employment in the United States and Canada (28,673 were placed in employment internationally) and 1,296 welfare missionaries were serving in 40 countries. Also in the U.S. and Canada today are 105 bishops storehouses, 93 canneries, 160 employment centers, 47 Deseret Industries stores, 65 LDS Social Services offices, 80 priesthood-managed production projects, and 20 processing and distribution facilities.
Through the welfare program, relief is also given to victims of disasters. From 1985 to 1998, there were 87 major disaster assistance efforts, including relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the Korean crop failure in 1996-1997. From 1984 to 1998, 146 countries received humanitarian assistance from the Church.
In addition, as of year-end 1998, 422,626 days of labor were donated in Church welfare operations and projects. And many of those giving of their time were also those receiving help — thus, eliminating the "curse of idleness" in times of want.
In the late 1920s the presidents of the six stakes in the center of Salt Lake City organized a committee to manage a regional employment center to supplement the Church's Deseret Employment Bureau. Those stakes were Salt Lake, Ensign, Liberty, Pioneer, Granite and Grant stakes.
In 1932, in what might be called the "genesis" of the modern-day bishops' storehouse and the subsequent Church Security Plan, those stakes also began developing stake-operated storehouses in an effort to receive fruits and vegetables for needy Church members, and, in turn, help farmers in Davis and Utah counties, which are north and south of Salt Lake County, respectively.
Low crop prices and financial inability to hire farm workers forced farmers to simply harvest what they could themselves and leave the rest to spoil. Word of this reached leaders of the Pioneer Stake in Salt Lake City, which saw some 60 percent of wage earners unemployed in the early 1930s.
In a three-pronged effort to help the farmers, feed the needy and provide work to the needy, stake leaders, led by their stake president, Harold B. Lee, forged an agreement with the farmers to provide free labor in exchange for a percentage of the harvest. To solve the problem of where to store the produce, stake leaders obtained the free use of a building at 333 Pierpont Avenue in Salt Lake City.
Soon, truckloads of unemployed Latter-day Saints were going to and from Davis and Utah counties to harvest fruit and other produce. The Pioneer Stake storehouse (later co-operated by the Salt Lake Stake) opened Aug. 19, 1932, including a small cannery to preserve the produce.
Other Salt Lake stakes followed with similar operations. Soon, investigating the Salt Lake stakes' welfare system as a possible pattern for a Churchwide welfare program, President Grant and his counselors in the First Presidency, President J. Reuben Clark Jr. and President David O. McKay, began visiting the Pioneer/Salt Lake bishops storehouse. It was those visits that soon led to the Church-wide program.
Six months after the plan's inception, President Grant organized the General Committee on Church Security, with Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve as chairman.
Serving as managing director on the committee was a man who would one day be Church president — President Harold B. Lee. The other members of the committee were Mark Austin, Campbell M. Brown, Stringham A. Stevens, J. Frank Ward and Henry D. Moyle. (The latter was later an apostle and a counselor in the First Presidency.)
Great successes and accompanying challenges were experienced the first year of the plan. A "Special Meeting of all General Authorities, members of all General Boards, and members of the General Church Security Committee" was held July 2, 1937, to discuss the Church Security Program. President Lee reported: "This work of organization has required of the General Committee an endless task of education, through regional, stake and ward council meetings and through bulletins and letters sent out from the General Office."
Among successes reported during the meeting was in the Juab Stake in central Utah. There, "three elders quorums [had] under cultivation approximately two thousand acres of land on the three thousand acre farm donated to the Church Security Program by President Grant. This is being handled on a crop-share basis. . . ."
By the end of the 1930s, the Church Security Plan was expanding. According to the April 6, 1986, Church News, a key component of the system, Deseret Industries, was started in 1938 so "less-able members could become self-supporting."
Also in 1938, the Church Security Plan was renamed the Church Welfare Plan, and Welfare Square in Salt Lake City was built, including a root cellar and cannery. In 1939, the regional bishops storehouse was added, and, later, a grain elevator.
Advocating working for what one receives was President J. Reuben Clark, under whose tutelage, were President Henry D. Moyle, President Harold B. Lee and President Marion G. Romney — who became instrumental in developing the foundation for the modern-day welfare program. All three men served, before they were General Authorities, on the Church Welfare Committee.
In fact, it was these four men who advocated continuance of the welfare program after the Depression came to an end. And it seemed provident that the program did continue, because, by October 1945, the regional storehouse on Welfare Square had been amassing hundreds of boxes of supplies for stricken areas in Europe. Later that month, President George Albert Smith and other Brethren traveled to Washington, D.C., and met with U.S. President Harry S Truman about how best to arrange for distribution of Church relief supplies.
President Truman asked how much time it would take for the Church to gather the supplies and was surprised by President Smith's response: "We have already collected clothing and food and are ready at once to begin shipping supplies."
The Church president then explained to the amazed U.S. chief executive the details of the Church Welfare Plan.
In 1946, according to A Labor of Love: The 1946 European Mission of Ezra Taft Benson, then-Elder Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve was sent to war-torn Europe by the First Presidency. Elder Benson, who later became the 13th president of the Church, left to preside over the European Mission in January 1946 and did not return until the next December. During that time, according to the April 6, 1986, Church News, about 49,000 Europeans received assistance from the welfare program. In addition, European members started relief projects on their own, including Dutch members shipping carloads of potatoes to German members — a symbol of forgiveness and love after German occupation of Holland during the war.
The 1950s saw even greater expansion of the Church Welfare Plan as Church welfare farms dotted the United States and Canada.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Church Welfare Plan continued to expand. In 1973, LDS Social Services, which had been expanded in the late 1960s under the title Unified Social Services, was placed under the umbrella of Welfare Services. Through this service, members could receive help with adoption, unwed parenthood, foster care, Indian student placement and counseling. Today, LDS Social Services offers help to members throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in England, Australia and New Zealand.
In 1991, the Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center was established (formerly known as the Deseret Industries Sort Center), where surplus items not sold at Deseret Industries are sorted and prepared for distribution to the needy — both LDS and non-LDS. Other items soon were amassed at the sort center, such as donated medical equipment and educational materials.
Also developed as a part of Welfare Services is the Church's Humanitarian Services, which sponsors activities to (1) help relieve suffering and meet people's basic needs by providing life-sustaining assistance, and (2) foster long-term self-reliance. For example, in 1994, a million dollars in commodities and cash were sent to Rwanda for the relief of the destitute. Assistance given through the Humanitarian Service Department helps needy people of all faiths throughout the world.
Throughout the years, the Church Welfare Plan has, at times, received national attention. One of the more prominent moments came with the visit of then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan to the Church cannery in Ogden, Utah, in September 1982. President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency, along with then-Elder Thomas S. Monson of the Quorum of the Twelve (now first counselor in the First Presidency) and Presiding Bishop Victor L. Brown, escorted President Reagan.
Offering his impressions of the cannery, the U.S. leader said: "Here is an entire industry, as you can see. It is manned by volunteers, people from the Church. The foodstuffs that are here are raised by volunteers, picked by volunteers. They're brought here. They're canned. They're put up in whatever packages are appropriate. And they're used to distribute to those people who have real need here in the state of Utah and all over the country, for that matter."
Throughout all these years Church leaders have always emphasized that families should prepare and strive to be self-reliant.
Members are encouraged to become self-reliant in six areas: education; physical health; employment; home storage; resource management; and spiritual, emotional and social strength. (See Providing in the Lord's Way: A Leader's Guide to Welfare and in the most-recent Spiritual and Temporal Welfare, book 2, section 8 of the Church Handbook of Instructions.)
"As people become self-reliant, they are better prepared to endure adversities, such as loss of employment, physical disabilities, and natural disasters without becoming dependent on others," the new handbook explains. "People who are self-reliant are also better able to care for others in need."
The handbook relates there are times when even faithful members cannot meet their own needs, such as the elderly or those who are disabled. There may be unemployment or natural disaster. In an emergency members are to turn, first, to their families for their basic needs. If this is not sufficient, they are then to turn to the Church, which continues to operate storehouses according to local needs.
"Church leaders should do what they can to help meet the basic needs of members in any of these circumstances and to help the members become self-reliant," according to the handbook.
Despite the growth and modifications to the Church Welfare Plan during more than 60 years, the principles have remained the same — self-reliance and Christian service.
Accounts abound illustrating the principles of welfare. Elder Glen L. Rudd, manager of Welfare Square for 25 years, related that when he was Welfare Square manager, a stake president came to him for help with a member. "Ed," then past 70, had worked in a meat-packing company for most of his life but had recently retired. He found himself suffering discouragement and depression, which, in turn, caused problems for his wife.
Elder Rudd told the stake president to have Ed show up for work the next day. "Ed, do you know how to make lunch meat?" Elder Rudd asked when the man arrived.
"Oh, sure," Ed replied.
For the next several years, Ed worked — for no pay — faithfully at the Church's meat processing center at Welfare Square. As Ed's savings ran short, he and his wife received what they needed through the storehouse program. He once said, "I've never been so happy. I've never been so needed. I've never been so useful, and I want to stay here until the day I die."
Elder Rudd related: "That he did. In fact, one day he just leaned over in the storehouse and quietly passed away, happy and useful to the last moment."
Over the past six decades, Welfare Services has blessed the lives of millions of people — LDS and non-LDS — following the pattern taught by the Savior to His disciples during His mortal ministry.
"Many, when they think of Church welfare, think of a farm or a bishop's storehouse," said Harold C. Brown, managing director of Welfare Services. "While those are both important parts of our welfare program, I believe as did President Spencer W. Kimball that 'welfare is the essence of the gospel.'
"When the tear is wiped from the burning cheek of a sick infant, that is welfare. When nutritious food is reverently placed in the bare cupboard of an elderly woman, that is welfare. When a man who has been unable to find work for years receives his first paycheck, that is welfare. That is the essence of the gospel.
"But welfare is more than blessing the lives of the needy. Welfare, when it is done in the Lord's way, blesses the lives of those who give as well. Indeed, I suspect the heavens themselves smile kindly on those who offer their time and resources and give generously of themselves to relieve the suffering of others. As the needy become self-reliant they, in turn, can bless the lives of others. Such effort enriches and ennobles both the giver and receiver. That is welfare."
Much of the historical information for this article was drawn from 1930, by Glen L. Rudd, who was manager of Welfare Square for 25 years.
