A Short Tribute

Until recently, mizrachi communities maintained soup kitchen funds.
As a child, I knew an old beadle (whose name was Agabebe ben Yitzhak Shemesh) who would go from door to door on Friday afternoons, collecting bread and cooked food for distribution in Jerusalem's poor neighborhoods. He would deliver what he collected to the poorest families and to those with many children.
When the World War broke out in 1914, this custom was halted and, for some reason, has never resumed. I am acquainted with several mizrachi families who, to this day, do not sit for their Sabbath Eve meal before their mothers have delivered some foods and bread to the poor of their neighborhood.