Everyone thinks they know George Winston. He’s a New Age space music guy, right?

That doesn’t begin to tell the tale.

George Winston is a wicked southern music pianist. From Montana. He’s a formidable jazz pianist who has played with some of the jazz greats. He’s recorded all of Vince Guaraldi. His are the invisible fingers behind The Velveteen Rabbit, and Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. He plays stride piano, slack key guitar, and harmonica.

His concert on Friday, May 7 at Grace Cathedral will benefit St. Anthony Foundation. Our food pantry gets whatever canned goods people bring and our programs get some of the proceeds of CD sales. You can buy a CD at the concert recorded to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina or 9/11 and benefit St. Anthony’s in the same stroke.

Recordings cannot communicate some of the ways he innovates with the keyboard. George Winston doesn’t need a Prepared Piano. He prepares it.

Who is George Winston, really? Come find out at Grace Cathedral, Friday, May 7.

Words of compassion and kindness from Florence, St. Anthony Foundation’s Social Work Center and Justice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy intern:

Sometimes I feel a disconnect between what I do on Fridays at St. Anthony’s and what I do the rest of the week, even when there shouldn’t be. I attend school in Berkeley, a city home to many of the homeless, and what is beautiful about it is that it encourages and allows the coming together of students and the disadvantaged. This is a place where students from diverse backgrounds encounter the marginalized on a day-to-day basis.  It could be a daunting experience for some and familiar for others. But ultimately, these experiences spawn a realization, whether conscious or not, that these two populations are treading a lot of common ground and that both carry the same capacity to love and to show compassion.

I think on my part, I have grown to realize that the homeless issue is not necessarily about the hunger for food, but more about a thirst for love, humanity, dignity, and perhaps simply for a listening ear and an open heart. This past Sunday, I decided to bring my service spirit from the Tenderloin to the streets of Berkeley. I brought a bowl of hot soup with me for whoever that needed a pick-me-up in the chilly evening air but never expected to be still holding it after three hours. I met three lovely individuals that evening and had enthusiastic conversations about music, natural disasters, and global warming. They declined my offer of hot soup for different reasons, but all three kindly suggested that I give the soup to someone else that is in more need of it than them. By that time, the soup was a cold mess in my hands, but my heart was warmed by the company and the compassion of three beautiful souls on the streets of Berkeley.

I saw an article today about the inherent need for health care for the poor and uninsured and was stuck by the similarities between a group of Tennessee-based health care providers who opened shop in the Los Angeles Sports Arena and our own clinicians here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic. The LA group, known as Remote Area Medical, is comprised of hundreds of hundreds of doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals who historically have focused on caring for impoverished rural populations. As we know here in the Tenderloin, the demand for health care for the underserved in big cities continues to grow and now the RAM doctors have taken to the busy streets in an effort to meet healthcare needs, much like we do every day here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic.

As Health Care Reform continues to move forward, I find myself feeling hopeful for the future of American health care – even if major changes won’t be entirely evident until 2014.  However, here in the Tenderloin we see the need for health care TODAY, the need for services for working  adults  and families and children right outside the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic doors. We provide care to more than 3,100 poor and uninsured patients a year and many of whom will not be eligible for government health care coverage when it becomes available. We will be here, as we are today, providing those in need with the comprehensive healthcare they deserve.

With the convention behind us I wanted to take a moment to look back and get the perspective of the Father Alfred Center staff who attended the Convention.

Administrative Coordinator Raynette Page Johnson says:

“I had the privilege and honor to greet our clients at the Northern California Convention of Narcotics Anonymous XXXII in Santa Clara, California.  Forty six  residents of Father Alfred Center attended.  We were in the company of thousands of recovering addicts from all over California and other states.  The Northern California Convention of Narcotics is the largest convention in California. The first convention was formed in 1979 in San Jose California.  There were approximately 350 recovering addicts in attendance.  This celebration of unity, simply known at NCCNA, now hosts between 6,000 to 8,000 recovering addicts annually.”

Manager Michael Hurd writes in:

“It is an awesome opportunity for Father Alfred Center residents to experience a NA Convention. I think it is surreal to imagine over 5,000 recovering addicts in one place at one time from all different cultures, races, backgrounds, beliefs to gather together for one common goal ,that goal being to help the addict who wants to recover is unimaginable until they see it. Then I think there can be a physic change where they can really start to believe that being clean for them is possible. I witnessed the stoic glow in several of our residents at the convention there expressions said it all. For me to witness the joy, hope and relief I see in the faces of our Father Alfred Center residents is priceless! I look forward to exposing new residents to this awesome experience again next year.”

Yesterday Chris Daly, Supervisor for District 6 of San Francisco which includes the Tenderloin area, proposed a ban on lying on the sidewalks. This legislation differs from the proposed sit/lie law sponsored by Chief of Police Gascon and Mayor Gavin Newsom in that it doesn’t prohibit lying down, but telling lies while on the sidewalks.

Although far-fetched and a bit bizarre, Daly’s proposal portrays the equal ridiculousness of the sit/lie law which gives police the power to fine or arrest people for innocent behavior. In addition, sit/lie would criminalize certain groups including the poor and homeless.

Last Saturday, individuals and groups gathered peacefully all across the city of San Francisco to participate in Sidewalks are for People, a decentralized, city-wide event that encourages people to utilize their city sidewalks as places of community-building. Over 2 dozen events, including poetry workshops, bbqs and tea parties, occurred in all areas of the city and demonstrated how sit/lie would eliminate sidewalks as community space.

A sit/lie hearing will take place at City Hall on Monday, May 10th at 10:00am. Stand up for your right to sit down and oppose sit/lie.

What’s cooking this week at St. Anthony Dining Room!

Monday, April 26 – Garbanzo Masala
Served with cucumber salad.

Tuesday, April 27 – Gumbo Ya Ya
A Cajun dish made with chicken, pork and simmered file powder.

Wednesday, April 28 – Chef’s Choice

Thursday, April 29 – Turkey and Corn Chowder
A New England style chowder made with turkey and served on a biscuit.

Friday, April 30 – Orange and Ginger Chicken
Chicken simmered with orange juice, ginger and Asian spices.

Check back for weekly installments of On The Menu!

San Francisco’s Historic Dining Room Exemplifies sustainability for the environment and the poor

St. Anthony Dining Room has been serving free meals to the poor since 1950. Today, as the San Francisco unemployment rate soars to 12.5% and more people are in need of a hot meal, St. Anthony’s continues to offer sustainably managed, healthy and filling meals 365 days a year at an average food preparation cost of 44 cents per serving. This conscious recipe of food reclamation and resource management, recycling and composting is essential to St. Anthony’s everyday sustainability, and exemplifies a sustainability

More than 75% of the 6,000 pounds of food that is prepared and served each day to San Francisco’s hungriest residents is reclaimed food, such as second-harvest fruits and vegetables or day old baked goods from bakeries, which would otherwise be thrown away. To continue the cycle of local sustainability, 70% of the waste matter (from preparation scraps to unfinished meals) from St. Anthony Dining Room is composted or recycled, which is then used as soil amendment for local farms.

“Earth Day is really about bringing awareness to responsible utilization of our resources, which the poor have always had to do. At St. Anthony’s we feed a lot of people every day, but we do it with serious consideration of the resources at hand. Food gets transformed to nourishment, waste gets transformed to compost, compost gets transformed to food. And lives get transformed in the process.” Noted St. Anthony’s Deputy Executive Director, Linda Pasquinucci.

St. Anthony Foundation’s programs help heal individuals and families with programs that provide a gateway out of poverty, including a Dining Room which serves 2600 meals every day, a free clothing program, a technology lab, residential drug and alcohol recovery program, and a free medical clinic. St. Anthony Foundation does not accept any federal, state, or local government money for its programs, and is entirely funded by private donations.

This past Thursday, April 22nd, the Tenderloin Tech Lab took some time to recognize all of the hard work and effort that our long time volunteer has provided to our program. Ann Lacosse has been co-teaching the always popular Basic Computer Skills course for over an entire year.

This class begins with the basics, beginning with parts of a computer as well as how to turn on a computer. The three week course goes on to teach proper typing techniques, word processing, and navigating Windows. Ann has shown a tremendous amount of patience in teaching while also challenging existing teaching techniques and styles to more improved methods that better suit the different learning preferences each student has.

On Thursday morning in a coordinated effort, staff recognized Ann for all the help she has provided while simultaneously congratulating a full classroom of students who graduated the course. What better way to celebrate both occurrences than with cookies?

Thank you Ann and congrats to our recent graduates.

A few months ago the folks at iProspect came through to St. Anthony Dining Room to volunteer as a corporate team. They were so moved by the work we do that they offered their support in the relaunch of St. Anthony Foundation’s website.

When they heard about the shortage of clothing at St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program they were quick to start up a drive of their own, collecting 10 bags within two weeks!

“Our employees at Aegis Media and iProspect find St. Anthony’s to be an incredibly worthy cause. It is so rewarding to be able to directly impact the local residents of San Francisco through clothing drives, volunteering at the dining room, and utilizing our specialized skills to increase awareness.” said Shannon McCarty, Client Services Manager of iProspect.

Encourage your co-workers to clean out their closets this month for St. Anthony’s.