| Free Breakfast for School Children Program | |
|---|---|
| Products | Breakfast |
| Owner | Black Panther Party |
| Country | United States |
| Key people | Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton |
| Established | 1969 |
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.
- ^ Bloom, Joshua (25 October 2016). Black against empire : the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-29328-1. OCLC 966308767.
- ^ Self, Robert. American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland. Princeton University Press, 2003. p. 231.