California Soul

Abstract

Stories of food and place from Oakland's Brown Sugar Kitchen kimberly nettles-barcelón California Soul Oakland, California, has long been a place with an embattled food politic. In 1968 the Black Panther Party (BPP), a militant political organization founded in Oakland, initiated a series of "Survival Programs" designed, in part, to improve the public image of the Party and make more visible their work as practitioners struggling for social change within black communities. These "Survival Programs"-food and clothing giveaways, free breakfast programs, free clinics, and alternative primary schools-were part of the BPP's 10 Point Program. Instituting these programs was central to a growing realization among some party members that the health and wellbeing of the BPP depended on the health and well-being of "the people" and the communities within which they resided. The "Free Breakfast Program" and the "Free Food Giveaways" received a good deal of media attention and, while the legitimacy of the BPP was always contested, this community work drew a lot of support from the Black elite, the white liberal Left, and political leaders within the San Francisco Bay