Friday, February 14, 2025

The Power of Breakfast

This morning I'm thinking about the Black Panther's Free Breakfast Program and the ways in which a single community center focused on meeting basic needs of residents was radical, and the conditions were so unequal that the program became radicalizing.

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. Various chapters would also provide transportation for children, from home to the chapter's Free Breakfast site, then to school.