All inhabitants of occupied Poland received monthly ration cards to buy food at regulated prices. However, Jewish ration cards allowed for the purchase of food amounting to a daily intake of only 250 to 300 calories. The rest had to be acquired on the black market.
At the initial stage of ghettoization, when many of its residents still worked outside the ghetto, and individual permits to leave the ghetto were relatively easy to obtain, some food could be bought on the black market, and smuggled back into the ghetto. It was forbidden to buy and sell on the black market, and often the German and Polish policemen at the ghetto gates had to be bribed.
Food, including kosher meat, was also delivered, both legally and illegally, by the Jewish Social Self-Help. Two soup kitchens, subsidized by the Jewish Social Self-Help and the Judenrat, operated in the ghetto. Over time, conditions deteriorated and contact with the world outside the ghetto walls was restricted.