It is interesting to look at the impact on our current School Breakfast Program made by the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children initiative in 1969. What first began in Oakland feeding hundreds of kids, the Free Breakfast for School Children initiative grew to feed thousands of children per day at 45 programs across the country. While the Black Panther Party’s initiative was not well received by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the initiative’s rapid expansion caught the attention of the public. Despite the program forcibly dismantling, the USDA’s School Breakfast Program gained full traction shortly after. It is likely that the implementation of the Free Breakfast for School Children by the Blank Panther Party is what catapulted the School Breakfast Program’s reach nationally.
Here are some Black-owned organizations to support this month: