Leading up to the strike there was a meeting with the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education in which the community of Roots Academy, a school facing closure, testified a plea to keep their school open. Teachers gathered at the #RedforEd rally January 12, demonstrating that they are strike-ready. In show of solidarity, ten non-union charter schools “engaged in a wildcat sympathy strike”. Rallies continued as teachers from all around the Bay Area took a sick day on January 18, 2019 and gathered at Oakland Technical High School to march to city hall in the name of public education. In an interview at the “sickout”, an Oakland teacher said “We have not had a contract for several years….The district is currently offering a 5% raise amounting to $70 extra which is not enough to keep up with the rising cost of housing in Oakland.” 1 in 5 teachers leave Oakland Unified School District because they cannot afford to teach in the city they live in. When asked if they had enough resources to succeed, three Oakland Tech students replied “No, we don’t even have paper in some of the class rooms. Some kids do not have textbooks and they have to do their work at home, where they may not have internet. Our classes are overfilled. Sometimes students will try to print their work in the library but there will be no paper if there is no librarian. We did not have a librarian this whole school year until last week.”. Bread for Ed raised more than $175,000 to feed children and families out of school, because “73 percent of students depend on free or reduced lunch from their school”.