In light of Oakland’s high rates of unemployment and poverty, the Ad Hoc Committee for Quality Education (AHC) found great support from the community for its proposal to establish a free school lunch program, but the Board of Education had been considerably more hesitant. Conservative, business-minded men that they were, board members pled poverty whenever the proposal came before them. After months of pressure from the Committee, the board put forth a rather underwhelming program: eligible children would receive 10 free lunches a month, or 45 over the semester— hardly a solution for students who required a midday meal everyday. Worse, elementary math proved that the program’s proposed budget assumed a paltry 50% participation rate for eligible children.
Led by Flatlands contributor and West Oakland community leader Elijah Turner, the Committee responded to this proposal by organizing picket lines at Cochran and Celli Chevrolet, where the prominent former Board of Education chairman Mel Caughell worked as sales manager, in order to send a message to the “power structure.” Turner announced that the Committee was mulling the possibility of picketing other Board members’ homes and businesses as well, pledging to “go to the limit with civil disobedience when necessary.” Above all, he continued, free lunch must be the school system’s highest priority: “Before the Oakland school system spend money on buildings and other equipment, they must guarantee each kid has a full stomach.”
