In June 1946 prisoners-of-war who had returned home were given a “Welcome Home” party in the Town Hall Community Feeding Centres were first established in 1940 by the Ministry of Food to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help. They were operated by local government or voluntary agencies on a non-profit basis and served inexpensive meals. No meal could be more than one serving of meat, game, poultry, fish, eggs, or cheese and did not require ration coupons to be “spent”. The demand for them soon spread. In 1942 they were renamed British Restaurants and by the end of that year 2,160 restaurants were serving some 600,000 meals a day. Initially the restaurants were subsidised by the Ministry of Food but in September 1943 this subsidy was removed and they were expected to be self-financing. A statement of accounts issued by the Ministry of Food for the financial year 1943/44 showed that during that year 1