Free Breakfast for Children

The Free Breakfast for School Children Program, or the People’s Free Food Program, was a community service program run by the Black Panther Party that focused on providing free breakfast for children before school. The program began in January 1969 at Father Earl A. Neil's St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, located in West Oakland, California^[1] and spread throughout the nation. This program was an early manifestation of the social mission envisioned by Black Panther Party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, along with their founding of the Oakland Community School, which provided high-level education to 150 children from impoverished urban neighborhoods. The breakfasts formed the core of what became known as the party's Survival Programs.^[2] Inspired by contemporary research about the essential role of breakfast for optimal schooling and the belief that alleviating hunger and poverty was necessary for Black liberation, the Panthers cooked and served food to the poor inner city youth of the area. The service created community centers in various cities for children and parents to simultaneously eat and learn more about black liberation and the Black Panther Party's efforts.

The program was initiated in January 1969 at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in West Oakland, California. Two months later, in March 1969, the Black Panther Party opened its second Free Breakfast Program for Children at the Sacred Heart Church in San Francisco, California.^[3] The program became so popular that by the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the US, claiming to have fed 20,000 children in 1969.^[4] Between 1969 and 1971, at least 36 Free Breakfast for Kids programs were running nationwide.^[1]

The Free Breakfast Program quickly became the central organizing activity of the Black Panther Party. The reach and success of the program highlighted the inadequacies of the federal government's then-flagging and under-resourced lunch programs in public schools across the country. The program allowed the children of West Oakland's poor neighborhoods to eat a healthy nourishing meal in a safe, supportive environment before school, optimizing their ability to learn.^[2] The party used the program to educate children and their families about anti-capitalism, Black pride, and developing revolutionary consciousness.^[5] Many of these programs were held in predominantly Black neighborhoods but also served children of other ethnicities. The program was mainly run by volunteers—both party members and non-affiliated community members, most of them women. Those working closely in the program made sure that the free breakfasts were a concrete assistance to the city's poor communities. They also shaped the program to be a powerful symbol of racial injustice and ghetto marginalization in America by teaching liberation lessons while children ate their meal.^[2] Volunteers would start setting up and preparing food around 6 am, and served the meal from 7-8:30. Most programs took place in churches, schools, or community centers. A typical breakfast often included some combination of bacon, eggs, grits, hotcakes, toast, sausage, and a glass of juice or milk.^[6] Various chapters would also provide transportation for children, from home to the chapter's Free Breakfast site, then to school.

The Free Breakfast for Children Program was one among more than 60 community social programs created by the Black Panther Party.^[7] They were renamed Survival Programs in 1971.^[8] These were operated by party members under the slogan, "Survival pending revolution". In addition to feeding school children, the party started People's Free Food Programs, delivering groceries, and encouraging community members to vote.

^[6] Following the creation of the breakfast program came the founding of Liberation Schools.^[2] The installment of the Intercommunal Youth Institute and the People's Free Medical Research Health Institute followed in 1970.^[2] The Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, which provided free sickle cell anemia testing, came in 1971.^[2] Another Survival Program started by the Black Panther Party was referred to as "medical self-defense" with the creation of healthcare clinics and their own ambulance services.^[9] Other survival programs included children's development centers, free clothing, free busing to prisons, free housing cooperatives, free ambulances, etc.^[10]

These programs had multiple goals including drawing community members to political rallies, dramatizing social inequalities, providing needed community services, and educating people in the ideas and program of the party.^[11] The Survival Programs solidified the Panthers' standing in the larger community. The party's daily presence in the neighborhoods with breakfast, child care, and other programs changed the impression of the Panthers.^[11] They were seen as community leaders that actively worked to help the people around them.

The Black Panther Party began as a predominantly male organization but later grew to recruit large numbers of women. With the rise in women's membership, the Party recruited primarily women to staff the Free Breakfast for Children program. Women’s roles and responsibilities within the Black Panther party were often stereotyped and marginalized and this often reinforced traditional gender norms, which gained pushback from the Party's women in the effort to achieve gender equality. The Party's service programs were deeply gendered and often relied on women to fill service roles. Despite women's crucial roles in organizing, logistics, and community outreach, they were frequently demoted to support roles, such as cooking, childcare, and administrative tasks.^[12] This limited portrayal undermined their leadership potential and downplayed their significant contributions to the movement. With similar oppressive roles in the Free Breakfast for Children programs, women's duties and responsibilities consisted of maternal roles in the program’s kitchens and serving roles, further highlighting the gender struggles within the Black Panther Party.^[1]

The involvement of the women within their BPP chapters was greater than what they have been recognized for within their communities.^[13] A notable contribution to the party’s mission towards providing free services such as the Free Breakfast for Children program was made by Frankye Adams-Johnson, co-founder of the White Plains Black Panther Party chapter.^[13] Similar to the responsibilities and jobs designated to the men, many of these duties in the White Plains chapter were fulfilled by women in the party.^[13] Specifically looking at their Free Breakfast for Children program, Johnson’s chapter organized and coordinated the logistics of this program, securing food donations and managing operations. The women were also responsible for cooking nutritious meals and ensuring they met dietary needs. The existence of Black Panther Party chapters founded and run by women showed equal commitment to what the Party stood for. Moreover, women-based Free Breakfast programs within chapters founded by women helped to lessen the stereotypes often associated with women's roles in the Party.

The Black Panther Party initially announced their intentions to begin the Free Breakfast for Children Program in September 1968 and the first program was officially launched at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in Oakland, CA in late January 1969. Parishioner Ruth Beckford-Smith was in charge of this first program.^[1]

Beckford-Smith, working with Father Earl A. Neil, constructed a healthy menu that would nourish children and created a kitchen and dining hall that passed health inspections. The program's launch day served 11 children and gained popularity, as by the end of the week 135 children were being served daily at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church. The programs success influenced other chapters of the Black Panther Party, and soon the Free Breakfast Program was mandatory in all chapters nationwide.^[7]

Fred Hampton, leader of the Chicago local, helped organize a number of community programs. These included five different breakfast programs on the West Side, a free medical center, a door to door program of health services (which offered testing for sickle cell anemia), and blood drives for the Cook County Hospital.^[14] The Chicago party also reached out to local gangs to clean up their acts, get them away from crime and bring them into the class war. The Party's efforts met with wide success, and Hampton's audiences and organized contingent grew by the day.^[15]

The Illinois chapter of the Free Breakfast program served more than 400 children every morning. The success of this program motivated government entities to act as shown in the city of Chicago’s choice to use federal funds to provide hot breakfast to poor children across the city. In addition to that, the BPP free health care clinics across Chicago motivated party members to make appeals to the Chicago Board of Health advocating for similar clinics in impoverished areas in Chicago.

The Washington chapter of the Black Panther Party experienced support from Seattle-native Jimi Hendrix. He would often send donations to the Seattle chapter of the BPP's free breakfast program. The Washington chapter's decision to also serve white and Asian families, led to broad community support, allowing the chapter to expand to five different locations. Beyond providing free meals, the Washington chapter sent out free groceries every Wednesday to families in the Seattle community.^[16]

The Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party met the needs of numerous ethnic groups because the black population in Seattle was not as high as in other areas. The attention to their specific community needs earned the Seattle chapter a reputation of being influential both in Washington and in the United States in general. The Seattle, Washington chapter's free breakfast program lasted longer than the majority of other programs and continued operations past the chapter's official closing date in 1977.^[17]

The Kansas City chapter of the Black Panther Party was led by Peter O’Neal and was composed of working-class, underclass, and middle-class African Americans. Originally the Kansas City chapter of the BPP was known as the "Black Vigilantes." However, when they gained formal admission to the BPP they changed their name. The main focus of the Kansas City chapter was the discontentment of the African American working class, black youth, and building survival programs.^[18]

The Kansas City chapter of the Black Panther Party successfully started two sites where free breakfast for school children was offered. In order to keep the program going, members of the Kansas City chapter visited local entrepreneurs and requested donations. The support they received allowed the Kansas City chapter to not only feed the black community but also offer political education classes and free health screenings.^[18]

The Des Moines, Iowa chapter of the Black Panther Party was successful in organizing a free breakfast program for children. The Des Moines Panthers fed elementary and junior high school children of different races and backgrounds. In order to continue to fund the breakfast program in Des Moines churches of all denominations would donate food and money.^[18]

Along with organizing a free breakfast program for children, the Des Moines chapter also organized health programs for adults. Under the leadership of Mary Rhem, the Des Moines chapter was successful in not only making their survival programs successful but also making their work known to the public. Thanks to multiple members of the Des Moines chapter making connections with community groups, their work and goals were spread to the public. The local paper, The Des Moines Register, covered the work of the breakfast program in Des Moines.^[18]

The chapter of the Black Panther Party in Houston, Texas took three waves to establish between 1968 and 1974, until their chapter was recognized as an official BPP chapter.^[19] The implementation of the Houston chapter didn’t gain importance in their community until Carl Hampton established the People's Party II (PP II) in 1970; his murder would play a pivotal role in their chapter gaining membership.^[19] By October 1971, PP II members received authorization to establish the Houston BPP branch. This final formation lasted approximately three years before it was forced to dissolve in August 1974, following orders from the national BPP leadership to relocate to Oakland.^[19]

During the final wave of the Houston chapter’s implementation, they were able to fully perform the roles and responsibilities similar to other more prominent chapters.^[20] While the free pest control project was a program that remained successful through their recognition phase, they were finally able to include the large programs that were run in the other Party’s chapters—free food giveaways, and sickle cell anemia and other preventive testing.^[20] One of their most successful programs—after many failed attempts at implementation—was the Free Breakfast for Children Program implemented in March 1973.^[20] While other chapters had support from their local churches for the Free Breakfast program, the Houston chapter lacked this support from their local churches. Since the members of the Houston chapter were determined to provide this program for their community, their first program was held in the Dew Drop Inn, a neighborhood beer joint on Dowling Street.^[20]

Despite its successes, federal authorities, as part of the COINTELPRO agenda, attempted to discredit and derail the Free Breakfast Program. Among other actions, authorities spread rumors of poisoned food and raided breakfast program locations while children were eating.^[21] The program gained FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's attention because of its success in gaining the support of many black children and liberal whites.^[22] The FBI would view the program as threat because of its appearance "as a front for indoctrinating children with Panther propaganda."^[1] Hoover wrote: "The [Program] represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for".^[23] As a result, many agencies, such as the police and FBI, were documented to be a force in harassing and discrediting the program, the people it benefited, and the Black Panther Party organization.^[23] Police raids were documented at various program sites as an effort to end the Free Breakfast for Children program.

The success of the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children program helped reduce hunger and food insecurity locally, while pressuring state and federal governments to expand their own services. The program showed the government's failure in the War on Poverty and the ongoing impact of childhood hunger.^[6]

However, it would be a decade or more before such free breakfast programs, following the inspiration of the widespread success and popular support gained by the BPP's programs, would become almost universally available to poor children through the US government.^[2] In California, the party pushed then-Governor Ronald Reagan's administration to create a statewide free breakfast program. While the federally funded School Breakfast Program for underprivileged children was first piloted in 1966 by the US Department of Agriculture, Congress only permanently authorized it in 1975.^[24] However, the California campaign for a free breakfast program had the underlining objective of this state-wide implementation was to seize the political power the Black Panther Party had gained through their survival programs.^[25] Additionally, the implementation of this government-funded free breakfast program would cause controversy due to budget cuts made during Reagan’s presidency which would lead to widespread poverty across the United States.^[26]

• Black Panther Party
• The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
• COINTELPRO
• Child Nutrition Act
• National School Lunch Act
• School Breakfast Program
• Food Justice Movement
• Social reproduction

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• Williams, Jakobi. 2023. From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago. UNC Press Books.
• Jeffries, J. L. 2010. On the Ground: The Black Panther Party in Communities across America. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi.
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• Heynen, Nik (2009). "Bending the Bars of Empire from Every Ghetto for Survival: The Black Panther Party's Radical Anti-hunger Politics of Social Reproduction and Scale." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 99 (2); 406-422. ISSN 0004-5608