Red Kettle History
courtesy of TSA - DFW Metroplex
In
1891, Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee was distraught because so
many poor individuals in San Francisco were going hungry. During the
holiday season, he resolved to provide a free Christmas dinner for the
destitute and poverty-stricken. He only had one major hurdle to
overcome -- funding the project.
Where
would the money come from, he wondered. He lay awake nights, worrying,
thinking, praying about how he could find the funds to fulfill his
commitment of feeding 1,000 of the city's poorest individuals on
Christmas Day. As he pondered the issue, his thoughts drifted back to
his sailor days in Liverpool, England. He remembered how at Stage
Landing, where the boats came in, there was a large, iron kettle called
"Simpson's Pot" into which passers-by tossed a coin or two to help the
poor.
The next day Captain McFee placed a similar
pot at the Oakland Ferry Landing at the foot of Market Street. Beside
the pot, he placed a sign that read, "Keep the Pot Boiling." He soon
had the money to see that the needy people were properly fed at
Christmas.
Six years later, the kettle idea spread
from the west coast to the Boston area. That year, the combined effort
nationwide resulted in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the needy. In
1901, kettle contributions in New York City provided funds for the
first mammoth sit-down dinner in Madison Square Garden, a custom that
continued for many years. Today in the U.S., The Salvation Army assists
more than four-and-a-half million people during the Thanksgiving and
Christmas time periods.
Captain
McFee's kettle idea launched a tradition that has spread not only
throughout the United States, but all across the world. Kettles are now
used in such distant lands as Korea, Japan, Chile and many European
countries. Everywhere, public contributions to Salvation Army kettles
enable the organization to continue its year-round efforts at helping
those who would otherwise be forgotten.