Zion has been defined as God’s people being of one heart and one mind, dwelling together in righteousness, and having no poor among them. Since Joseph Smith’s day Latter-day Saints have made continuous efforts toward this Zion ideal, including not only assisting the poor and needy, but going even further to help them eliminate poverty from their lives by becoming self reliant.    
In this episode of Church History Matters we want to trace the fascinating story of our current Church system for helping the poor—beginning at its origins where it was serendipitously born of necessity in the mind of a Stake President amidst the Great Depression, to its current multi-pronged offerings where, though most of it goes unseen, it quietly blesses countless lives.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/