The Cinderella Club movement was an offshoot of the Labour church movement, and was likewise born in Manchester before spreading to other parts of the country.
The clubs seem to have been run quite independently. According to theBirmingham Daily Post of 19 December 1890, a Cinderella Club was formed in that city after several citizens of the community had visited Manchester where they had seen one of the Clubs in action. The Birmingham club was set up to "provide free supper and entertainment once a week to some hundreds of the poorest children in Birmingham." If the report in the paper is to be credited, there can be little doubt of its success. According to that source, the Birmingham club was providing for 350 children each week. Tickets were distributed at schools to children between the ages of 6 and 12 and "the greatest discrimination was exercised" to see that the tickets went only to the very poorest. On the 18th of December, over 1,000 children were fed and entertained at the Birmingham Town Hall
They were admitted in batches, a sufficient number at a time to fill the committee-room. Each child was served with a metal basin of steaming hot soup, and a spoon with which to eat it. After they had had their suppers they filed off into the Town Hall, receiving a bun each on the way, and then another detachment took their places. Supper commenced at six o'clock, and by seven the whole of the children had been fed; but as the last detachment entered the room it was seen that a very large number of cold shivering little ones were at the door without tickets looking wistfully at the more fortunate ones. That was a pitiable sight, but their hearts were soon cheered and their faced brightened, as they too were allowed to enter, for there was plenty of soup left.
