Subsidized Restaurants: Aid to the Petty Bourgeoisie in Belgium during the First World War

During the Great War, a particular food programme was set up in Belgium to aid the bourgeoisie: the subsidized restaurant. Prior to the war, the bourgeoisie contributed to food aid rather than benefitting from it, and so this meant a radical disturbance of accustomed social relationships. This article explores the organization, funding, ideology and performance of this extraordinary aid, that not only testified to the extremely bad living conditions during the war, but also to various views on private and public food aid. At first, private aid sufficed to help the petty bourgeoisie, but in early 1917 weighty public intervention was necessary to support the fast-growing group of needy petty-bourgeois families. This aid not only aimed to ensure the survival of these families, but also to prevent political radicalization in the aftermath of war. The restaurants économiques had the same material and immaterial significance for the bourgeoisie as soup distribution did for the working classes.