From theblackbottom. DBCFSN has showcased itself as one of the most serious groups organizing for community resilience in a city that has witnessed a breakdown of its government and economy.

There’s a mention of the BPP in the article as well:

While the Black Panther Party (BBP) is best know for brandishing loaded shotguns through the streets of Oakland (which for the record was completely legal under California law), there was much more to the BPP. Though firearms always seemed to overshadow the “survival programs” like free breakfast, clothing distributions and sickle cell screenings, the community programs made much more impact. While it’s tempting to see the work of Feedom Freedom as an extension of the BPP’s “survival programs” Wayne is quick to correct that notion.

“The conditions that existed before do not exist,” Wayne says.”Some of the strategies coincide with what’s going on today but the tactics have changed, the concepts have changed. You can’t use old terminology to explain new phenomena.”

If old terminology won’t explain new phenomena, then what explains the purpose of the work of Feedom Freedom growers? While organizing, community building, and developing local economies come up several times, the idea that comes up over and over again is the idea of transformation. That the gardens are a place for us to make personal and community transformation. While capitalism has managed to turn almost everything into a commodity, the gardens still function as a place for us to connect with objective reality (though with corporate sponsorship becoming more and more common, even this may no longer be true) and with each other, becoming the people we are destined to be be, not just a consumer of capital culture.