Re-Thinking the Soup Kitchen

Re-thinking Soup , at Jane Addams Hull House Museum, serves up bowls of soup and, hopefully, change.

According to Kelly Saulsberry, Hull House Museum Project Coordinator, Re-thinking Soup serves free lunch on Tuesdays — healthy soup (made in their on-site kitchen) and organic bread — inside the historic Hull House Residents’ Dining Hall on UIC’s campus. Meeting in the hall where author Upton Sinclair sat each night to write The Jungle, the weekly event’s goal is to bring together the community for a discussion on changing food policy in the city.

In the past few years, supermarket erosion has deeply effected the South and West Sides of the City (the closings of Dominick’s at 79^th & Dan Ryan, 3300 W Belmont Ave., and 5829 S. Archer Ave., for example).

Coupled with the disproportionate number of fast-food joints and corner stores to places carrying fresh produce and meats, the problem leaves “an estimated half million people without access to affordable, nutritious food,” according to In These Times. The cost of this is higher instances of diabetes, obesity, and other health-threatening issues.

If you are interested in joining the discussion, visit: 

Re-Thinking Soup

Hull-House Museum (at UIC)
800 S. Halsted
Tuesdays at Noon

To Feed Our Children: The Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program

“The Free Breakfast for School Children is about to cover the country and be initiated in every chapter and branch of tile Black Panther Party. This program was created because the Black Panther Party understands that our children need a nourishing breakfast every morning so that they can learn.

These Breakfasts include even nutrient that they need for the day. For too long have our people gone hungry and without the proper health aids they need. But the Black Panther Party says that this type of thing must be halted, because we must survive this evil government and build a new one fit for the service of all the people. This program is run through donations of concerned people and the avaricious businessmen that pinch selfishly a little to the program. We say that this is not enough, especially from those that thrive off the Black Community like leeches. All of the avaricious businessmen have their factories etc. centered in our communities and even most of the people that work in these sweat shops are members of the oppressed masses.

It is a beautiful sight to see our children eat in the mornings after remembering the times when our stomachs were not full, and even the teachers in the schools say that there is a great improvement in the academic skills of the children that do get the breakfast. At one time there were children that passed out in class from hunger, or had to be sent home for something to eat. But our children shall be fed, and the Black Panther Party will not let the malady of hunger keep our children down any longer.

The Breakfast Program has already been initiated in several chapters, and our love for the masses makes us realize that it must continue permanently and be a national program. But we need your help and that means money, food, and time. We want to turn the programs over to the community, but without your efforts and support we cannot.” –Huey Newton

Written: March 26, 1969
Source: The Black Panther

below is an Audio clip of Huey Newton speaking on the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program:

The Breakfast program