The 1906 Earthquake

On April 18, 1906, a huge earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area. A big fire broke out and within days, 25,000 buildings were destroyed and 250,000 people became homeless. Camps were set up in Golden Gate Park and other open spaces throughout the city. Providing food and water to everybody was very important!

Bakeries in nearby towns like Oakland and Berkeley baked loaves of bread 24 hours a day. Food was brought in from across the country to help the earthquake victims, although fresh vegetables were hard to come by. Thousands of people did what they could to make sure the earthquake victims had enough food to survive.