Commenting on the events that resulted in the monthly day of fasting for Church members being changed from the first Thursday to the first Sunday of each month, Russell R. Rich wrote:
Change in Fast Day
In 1855 when poor crops were harvested because of drouth and grasshoppers inaugurated its first regular fast day, the first Thursday of each month. It was to be a day when people would donate in kind the food they did not eat which would then be distributed among the poor.
Since many of the Saints were, in 1896, employed by gentile merchants, and others were in pursuits which made difficult their regular weekday attendance at fast meetings, the First Presidency sent out a letter of instruction, designating the first Sunday of every month has fast day. They also included instructions pertaining to the observance of the fast:
In some places the custom has arisen to consider it a fast to omit eating breakfast. This is not in accordance with the views and practice of the past. When fasts were observed in the early days, it was a rule to not partake of the food from the previous day until after the meeting in the afternoon of the fast day. In making donations to the poor also it has been the understanding that the food that would be necessary for the two meals should be donated to the poor, and as much more as those who are liberally inclined, and have the means, may feel disposed to give (CHC, 6:240).
Today, these instructions are still valid except that donations are made in money instead of in food. (Russell R. Rich, Ensign to the Nations: A History of the LDS Church from 1846 to 1972 [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Publications, 1972], 434-435)
