Donate a used pair of jeans to St. Anthony Foundation at Adriano Goldshmied’s store on 20 O’Farrell St and get 20%!

Undemployment Up And Stock Market Down Means A Longer Line At St. Anthony’s

SAN FRANCISCO, CA November 25th, 2008 St. Anthony Dining Room will serve more than 3,500 turkey dinners to the poor and homeless on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27th. And on the Wednesday prior (November 26th), St. Anthony staff and volunteers will together be carving turkeys, making pumpkin pies, and mashing potatoes to ensure that when the doors open at 9:45 A.M. on Thanksgiving morning, there is plenty for everyone.

“With unemployment up and the stockmarket down, it is no wonder that more people will be spending Thanksgiving at St. Anthony’s. ” noted St. Anthony Executive Director Fr. John Hardin. “We are serving 20% more people in our programs than we were 5 years ago, and like everyone, our costs have gone up.”
St. Anthony’s has been running a special “drive by” food and clothing donation drive to help meet the crisis of increased demand, as more and more people turn to the 58 year old non profit for basic necessities as a result of the current economic crisis. Clean, cared-for warm clothing and canned or dried bulk foods, are especially needed.

For 57 years St. Anthony Foundation has provided free, life sustaining support for the poor and homeless. St. Anthony Foundation’s programs help heal individuals and families by providing a gateway to solutions to poverty, including a Dining Room which serves 2600 meals every day, an Employment Program/ Technology Lab, Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program, and a Free Medical Clinic. St. Anthony Foundation does not accept any federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely funded by private donations.

St. Anthony Foundation’s Annual Curbside Holiday Donation Drive Starts This Weekend!

Weekdays 8AM – 6PM, Weekends 9AM – 3PM
Saturday, November 22 – Thanksgiving, November 27
Saturday, December 20 – Christmas, December 25

Donate

Volunteer

Historic nonprofit offers help to SF neighborhood with highest citywide rate of diabetes hospitalizations

SAN FRANCISCO, CA November 19, 2008 On World Diabetes Day, St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic will be offering free blood sugar check ups, as well as diabetic foot and eye exams, medication review, tips on holiday diabetes control and free massages to San Francisco’s poor and homeless. St. Anthony’s effort to address the staggering rate of diabetes in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district comes at a time when nearly 24 million Americans, 8 percent of the population, are reported to have Type II diabetes. Diabetes can also lead to kidney failure, blindness and heart disease.

Diabetes in the Tenderloin

The Tenderloin district has the highest citywide rate of ambulatory hospitalizations due to diabetes, according to a 2007 Building a Healthier San Francisco’s Community Health Assessment, as well as the city’s highest concentration of people living below the poverty line. The prevalence of Type II diabetes is highest among adults from low-income households.

 “Tenderloin residents lack adequate access to nutritious food and safe spaces for exercise, which dramatically impacts two of the leading factors in diabetes management- diet and exercise.” noted St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic Director, Dr. Ana Valdés.  “We try to address those factors through education, active medical care, and diabetes management techniques.”

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic

Established in 1956, the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic is the first Free Medical Clinic in the United States. The new clinic, located in St. Anthony’s new LEED certified service center, will open in January of 2009. It will provide over 12,000 patient visits annually, of which approximately 25% will be pediatric visits.

St.  Anthony Free Medical Clinic is one of the many free, life-sustaining programs and services of St. Anthony Foundation that helps to heal individuals and families. St. Anthony Foundation is not funded by federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely supported by private donations.

Reuters reported yesterday on the growing number of homeless families in the United States. San Francisco’s four shelters are “beyond full,” with at least 450 families with 800 children living in single-room hotels in the city.

(Click here to read the entire article …)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA November 11, 2008 From 10:30am-11:30am, card-carrying veterans visiting St. Anthony Foundation will receive a special gift of chocolate, energy bars, rain ponchos, and tea. While many may be categorically eligible for the VA housing loans which will be made available through Veterans’ Bond Act of 2008 (S.B. 1572, which was passed on November’s ballot), the reality of the mental health challenges and addictions which afflict many homeless veterans make qualifying for the housing loans difficult. Veterans Day is one of St. Anthony Dining Room’s busiest days of the year.

Veterans make up almost a quarter of the homeless population in the United States, with the Veterans Administration (V.A.) estimating there is approximately 2,075 homeless veterans in San Francisco. Many who turn to St. Anthony’s Dining Room are veterans who have sacrificed their physical and mental well-being to serve their country. Today, they spend Veterans Day struggling to secure food and housing.

“The best way to honor our veterans on Veterans Day is to help direct them towards the services and programs that can help them, and that they are eligible for.” noted St. Anthony Foundation Executive Director Fr. John Hardin.

Bobbie Rosenthal, Regional Manager for homeless programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs will also be on site to discuss the award of 105 housing vouchers as part of the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program.

Gifts bags for the veterans were made with donations from local Bay Area businesses, including Clif Bar, San Francisco Chocolate Factory, and Numi Tea.

St. Anthony Foundation was established in 1950 to care for San Francisco’s poor. St. Anthony’s continues to offer a number of programs to improve the lives of poor and homeless San Franciscans, including a Free Medical Clinic and the Employment Program / Tech Lab. St. Anthony’s does not accept any federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely funded by private donations.

Hoodiepeople.com believes everyone needs a clean and warm hooded sweatshirt, and we couldn’t agree more! As the winter months approach San Francisco gets colder and many of our more vulnerable clients and guests fall victim to illnesses that would have been easily prevented by bundling up.

That’s why we’re thrilled to hear that Hoodiepeople.com has taken it upon themselves to collect as many new or gently used hoodies for St. Anthony’s Clothing & Housewares Program. In exchange for your generosity you’ll be rewarded with 25% discount off any item in their web store. Check out their blog for details.

This line is so long. I have been waiting forever. I’m going to be late for work. My feet hurt. There has to be a better strategy for this. Didn’t they expect these lines? What is taking so long? Why aren’t they prepared for this?

A breadline. A meal line, waiting for daily nourishment.

Waiting for an emergency food bag, to have something to cook for the kids.

The line to a clinic, to an emergency room, because insurance is too expensive and out of reach.

I have been lucky, these are not lines that I have experience standing in. So today I stood in a different line, to cast my vote, and try and make those other lines a little shorter, a little easier for those who do.

Vote.

“There’s no such thing as us and them. There’s no them. It’s all us.” This is one of the things that the JEVA (Justice Education, Volunteers, and Advocacy) department tells volunteers during the introduction to our work at St. Anthony’s. One of the most profound things that our volunteers experience is the reality of the common humanity among all people, regardless of income, disability status, or age.  Every time I think about this phrase, I am reminded of a story that I’ve heard many times …

It was around 1910 when his parents decided to come to America. They knew that their future in southern Italy was bleak. All they had ever known was poverty. Neither his mother nor his father could read or write Italian, and neither could speak English. Yet, when they heard of an American textile company that could offer employment, they decided to leave everything they’d ever known to come to the United States. It’s impossible to know whether they realized that they’d never see Italy or their parents again. They probably didn’t allow themselves to think about such things — they realized that the best chance for their family’s survival depended on their ability to make the 2-week long sea voyage from Italy to New York. As the date of their voyage drew closer, they surely, as they had many times during past uncertainty and strife, they prayed to St. Anthony for help, strength, and comfort.

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