In 1939, during the Great Depression, Washington State operated four cooperative canneries, all funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Canneries at Kirkland and Kent served families from as far as away Everett and Tacoma. Any family with an income of less than $100 a month could bring fruit, vegetables, and meat to the cannery to preserve them for the winter. The cannery kept one third of the canned fruits and vegetables and sent them to state and county hospitals and prisons.
In this July 1939 photo, three female workers gather in front of the Kirkland Cooperative Cannery. In 1938, the Kirkland cannery produced 400,000 cans of fruits, vegetables, and meat products and assisted 10,030 families and 16 organizations. The Kirkland cannery closed in 2001.
Handwritten on negative: Co-op Food Mill Kirkland Handwritten on sleeve: KIRKLAND, Wash., Co-op cannery. Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): July 16, 1939.
ID Number: 1986.5.4890.1
Date: 1939
Physical Description: 1 negative : nitrate, b&w ; 4 x 5 in.
