Life is Living Free Breakfast Program

The Black Panther Party (BPP) started the Free Breakfast for School Children program in 1969 at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland, CA., with the radical commitment to feed Black and brown children before school. The Breakfast Program was one of the most successful of over 60 Survival Programs launched by the Panthers, feeding thousands of children. Their commitment to feeding Black children healthy meals was so dangerous that the FBI named it the biggest domestic threat to national security. This pressured Congress to authorize the expansion of free meals for all public schoolchildren. If you ever received a free meal in school, it is because of the tireless organizing and radical vision of the Panthers.

People's Kitchen Collective has honored this history since 2008, serving thousands with a hot, nutritious, and delicious breakfast as part of the Life is Living (LiL) festival in historic Little Bobby Hutton/DeFremery Park in West Oakland.