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 every morning before school. The program began in January 1969 at Father Earl A. Neil's St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, located in West Oakland, California 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. 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.
History
The program was initiated in late 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. 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. By 1971, at least 36 Free Breakfast for Kids programs were running nationwide.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. The party used the program to educate children and their families about anti-capitalism, Black pride, and developing revolutionary consciousness. 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. 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, pancakes, toast, sausage, and a glass of juice or milk. Various chapters would also provide transportation for children, from home to the chapter's Free Breakfast site, then to school.
Survival Programs
The Free Breakfast for Children Program was one among more than 60 community social programs created by the Black Panther Party. They were renamed Survival Programs in 1971. 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.Following the creation of the breakfast program came the founding of Liberation Schools. The installment of the Intercommunal Youth Institute and the People's Free Medical Research Health Institute followed in 1970. The Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, which provided free sickle cell anemia testing, came in 1971. 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. Other survival programs included children's development centers, free clothing, free busing to prisons, free housing cooperatives, free ambulances, etc.
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. 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. They were seen as community leaders that actively worked to help the people around them.
Women's roles and contributions
The Black Panther Party began as a predominantly male organization but came to include large numbers of women who joined the party who in many instances held crucial and defining roles within the structure and power of the Black Panther Party Organization, with some stating "the Panther women basically ran the headquarters".Despite this however, gender roles still formed a very key issue within the Black Panther Party, among both male and female leaders and members of the party due to the gender roles and cultural stereotypes they themselves had internalized growing up within the United States, which affected the way they saw themselves and, in the case of males, the roles they thought that women should occupy within the party which fell largely along the roles of caretaking, cleaning, and cooking.
Although there was support among the public for the armed protection of black communities, the larger struggle of supporting the public was one that caused some dissent, but due to efforts of female Panther members such as Cleo Silver, eventually led to a shift in strategy and resources as the party moved away from solely supporting the idea of a swift overthrow of the existing power structure, and instead towards a dual strategy where the needs of the public were met and served as an opportunity to teach by example the message of the Black Panther Party. This was due to the fact that through canvassing of members of the public, female Panthers had discovered that their communities were concerned about security but also about day-to-day issues such as housing, food, and education, with breakfast being a key issue.
Panther Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, placing importance on the aspect of armed struggle and activities which were considered to be more masculine, had called the breakfast program a "sissy program" while visiting the office in New York. However, these views were rejected by, among other male members of the Black Panther Party, chairman Bobby Seale. In reply to Cleaver, Seale eventually convinced Cleaver to shift from armed struggle to community programs :
After the program was launched, the role of women within the party was somewhat complex due to the fact that female members within the party themselves also conformed to prevalent gender roles which placed them in the roles of cooking, cleaning and administrative work. Women within the Panthers often filled these roles, but it has been argued that despite this, through these roles and their key positions within the party, were able to drive the Black Panther Party towards a more compassionate and balanced communitarian policy based on the weight of their contributions—and away from the sole policy of a swift overthrow of the existing power structures. It has been argued that this turn towards communitarian and populist policies made the Panthers and their ideology more influential in their communities, which made them more of a target of the FBI due to their threat to the existing power structure.
Despite the crucial role that women such as Afeni Shakur played within the party – who was seen largely as a balance between a caring and compassionate woman and a strong, capable leader – a large number of women did play a role within the party which was dictated by societal gender roles and were expected by male Panthers within leadership positions to work in support roles such as performing childcare, cooking and cleaning, despite their crucial roles as community organising, logistics and outreach which distinguished them as important members of the party.
An example of this disparity is outlined by former Panther Cleo Silver, who stated that in some of the photo ops intended as propaganda for the party often showed male Panthers serving the children meals, which excluded women from the plaudits of the successes of the programs. Some female members of the Panthers have said this was also due to the fact that the female Panthers did not want these plaudits and were invested in the activities to help their communities. Largely however, the gender expectation was that 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.
The involvement of the women within their BPP chapters was greater than what they have been recognized for within their communities. 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.
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. 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.