After months of debate, Congress still has not been able to pass a bill (H.R. 4213, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010) that would extend Unemployment Insurance and would help support Medicaid and affordable housing programs.

The California Employment Development Department reports that as of June 22, 2010, there are 205,000 Californians who are in danger of running out of Unemployment Insurance benefits or who have already received their last check.

Not only do we need to advocate for the extension of Unemployment Insurance, medical care, and affordable housing funding, we have to tell Congress not to pay for these programs by cutting other vital services, like anti-hunger programs!  (One of the ideas floating through the Senate last week was to pay for the Unemployment Insurance extension by cutting $9.5 billion from the Food Stamp program!)  It’s unbelievable to me that the Senate would consider making this type of “Sophie’s Choice”, but I guess I feel that way because I work here at St. Anthony’s, where we take a holistic approach to helping people through rough times by offering free meals, employment assistance, medical care, free clothing, and more.

The Senate is expected to take up H.R. 4213 again after the Fourth of July recess.  Once again, we have the opportunity to tell our Senators that we need to take action to promote the common good and help our struggling friends, neighbors, and community members.

Our friends at NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby have an email form here that makes it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to support H.R. 4213.

Chronicle/Brant Ward

The national strategic plan to end homelessness was published today with a plan to finish the job of ending veteran and chronic homelessness by 2015 and among families, youth, and children by 2020.

The pieces sound good, now lets see how they are actually implemented… 

• Increasing leadership, collaboration, and civic engagement, by a focus on providing and promoting collaborative leadership at all levels of government and across all sectors and strengthening the capacity of public and private organizations by increasing knowledge about collaboration and successful interventions to prevent and end homelessness.
• Increase access to stable and affordable housing, by providing affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.
• Increase economic security, expand meaningful and sustainable employment and improve access to mainstream programs and services to reduce financial vulnerability to homelessness.
• Improve health and stability, by linking health care with homeless assistance programs and housing, advancing stability for youth aging out of systems such as foster care and juvenile justice, and improving discharge planning for people who have frequent contact with hospitals and criminal justice systems.
• Retool the homeless response system, by transforming homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness to stable housing.
• http://www.usich.gov/

We found a stack of beautiful hand-drawn cards for our guests in a recent clothing donation at St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program. A post-it note said they were done by second graders, but didn’t name the school.

Thanks for showing your love to our guests, with warm clothes for their outsides and warm thoughts and prayers for their insides.

If you have been thinking about volunteering at St. Anthomy’s there is no better time than now! Round up a team and help us keep food on the table.

These dates are just a few short weeks away so give us a ring and mark your calendar.

We can’t wait to see you again!

P.S. You can give us a ring at (415) 592-2704 or send an email to dgould@stanthonysf.org to confirm your date.

On Wednesday, June 30th 2010, the Tenderloin Technology Lab along with the National Career Development Association and the Bay Area California Career Development Association is sponsoring a Job Search Workshop. In this workshop, there will be career counselors from across the country available for individuals to meet with regarding any issues or obstacles they have in obtaining employment. Topics may include but are not limited to resume/cover letter critique, interviewing preparation and practice, networking techniques, dealing with criminal history, etc.

There will be coffee and bagels available for anyone who would like to join. This is a terrific opportunity for individuals to get advice and meet with professionals who have the knowledge and background in the field. If you would like to join us, please reserve your spot by either calling 415-592-2766, e-mailing us at frontdesk@tenderlointechnologylab.org, or stopping by 150 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, 3rd floor.

This week’s entry was written by Derek, a junior at the University of Notre Dame and founding member of the Double Down sandwich fan club:

My jaw dropped when a gentleman whom I was helping draft a resume in the Tenderloin Tech lab told me where he got his high school diploma from. It took a second to register as I punched in the name of his school under the Education section of the word document that we were working on. “NO WAY”, I turned my chair to face him. “You’re from Ossining?” The man cracked a wide grin, “Born and raised!” I was completely blown away that here I was, in San Francisco, a new intern at St. Anthony’s who had never been to California before, sitting with a client in the third floor tech lab who just happened to used to live two streets down from the house that I grew up in. We laughed and gave each other a high five like we had just won the world-series (now both of us, being New Yorkers and fans of the Yankees, are no strangers to winning world-series.)

After that moment, it was as if we had known each other all our lives. We were all smiles as we swapped our experiences and memories about home, traded stories about how we got out to San Francisco, and mused about the small world that we live in. For a few minutes that day, my friend’s arduous job search became less stressful, and my nerves about being a stranger in a new town and a new workplace were gone. We were each a little bit of home for the other and we gave something to each other and traded encouragement and strength, not with specific words, but just because we were two guys from “O-town” who had found each other over two thousand five hundred miles away.

Finding that simple, natural connection with someone else and that feeling of solidarity with a complete stranger is the treasure of service. That gift is abundant at St. Anthony’s in interactions with clients and with the staff. Having experienced it already, I could not be more excited for my next six weeks here.

CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) was founded in 1957 and currently is a 2,400-plus member national organization comprised of the sports public relations, communications and information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the United States and Canada.

In San Francisco. CoSIDA Convention attendees or spouses are encouraged to attend the service project at the St. Anthony Foundation where they will volunteer time in the dining room plus have a chance to interact with the Father Alfred Center, which helps homeless men with addiction from drugs and alcohol. This moving experience will hopefully leave an impact on you and help CoSIDA reach out to the San Francisco community.

“We have worked hard to coordinate this project with the St. Anthony Foundation and hope that CoSIDA members take a hour or two out of their convention schedule to volunteer their time towards a worthy cause,” said CoSIDA Goodwill Committee Chair Sam Atkinson, Gallaudet University sports information director. “We had a good start last year with our first-ever service project in San Antonio and we hope to have more people come out and help this year and show why ‘CoSIDA Cares’ about giving back to our host city.”

Learn more about CoSIDA’s work with St. Anthony’s by clicking here.

Today’s blog entry is from Derek Escalante, an intern in the Tenderloin Tech Lab this summer:

On Saturday June 19^th, the staff from the Tenderloin Tech Lab paired up with 8 volunteers and 9 Reliatech Computer Technicians to host another successful and fun Tech Fair. On the day of Tenderloin Tech Fair, which is hosted by the St. Anthony Foundation four times a year, guests of the foundation can come in and work with professionals on questions or problems related to computer technology. On Saturday, over a hundred clients attended San Francisco’s largest free tech help event. Over 25 individuals brought in their personal computers to be diagnosed and repaired by the talented professionals, while others were able to participate in advanced computer skills courses, have personal one-on-one tutoring for specific questions, and access a wealth of resources. Clients were able to receive help from tech gurus in everything from word processing to Facebook to advanced web design. Over the years, the Tech Fair has become a hot item in the Tenderloin; word has spread quickly among clients about the free event, as the majority of clients indicated that they heard about the Tech Fair through word of mouth or from staff at the St. Anthony Dining Room. With such incredible resources available and the help of great people– all for free!- the high client turnout on Saturday makes it clear that the tech fair is the place to be.

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

Monday, May 21 – Backed Penne Pasta
Pork slowly simmered with onions, garlic and soy suace with pickled onions over rice.

Tuesday, May 22 – Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff
Beef and Mushrooms simmered slowly in a rich sour cream sauce served over egg noodles

Wednesday, May 23 – Turkey Meat Balls
Spiced turkey meatballs slowly roasted then simmered in a tangy and smoky sauce over rice.

Thursday, May 24 – Sausage And Potato Hash
Sausage and potatoes roasted with vegetables and herbs and topped with bread crumb salsa.

Friday, May 25 – Creamy Chicken and Mushrooms
Chicken slowly braised in cream with mushrooms served with a orzo pasta salad

Saturday, May 19 – Chef’s Choice

Sunday, May 20 – Paella
A traditional Spanish dish made with baldo rice, saffron, sausages and chicken.

Check back for weekly installments of On The Menu!

Shari Roeseler steps in to lead historic non-profit into the next decade

SAN FRANCISCO, June 21st, 2010 St. Anthony Foundation announced today the selection of Shari Roeseler as the new Executive Director of St. Anthony Foundation.

Roeseler is a respected leader in the nonprofit sector, having worked extensively with Mercy Housing California, a key provider of affordable low-income housing programs in California, over the last ten years. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Resource Development, and was responsible for all the California fundraising for the well known national non-profit.

“We are thrilled to have Shari Roeseler lead St. Anthony Foundation into the future,” noted Deputy Executive Director, Linda Pasquinucci. “As we ramp up to building an up-to-date Dining Room, Shari’s leadership, development expertise, and passion for serving the poor will enable St. Anthony’s to continue to meet the needs of San Francisco’s most vulnerable citizens.”

The former Executive Director, Father John Hardin, OFM, stepped down as Executive Director after being named to lead the provincial of the Franciscan Order of the Western United States. Father John will continue to serve as the President of the Board of Trustees of St. Anthony Foundation.

“St. Anthony’s is a treasured San Francisco institution that has saved many lives and won many hearts,” Roeseler noted. “I am honored to have been chosen to lead this historic and forward thinking nonprofit, which in addition to serving over 36 million meals since its inception has also been a non-profit thought leader in green service standards, culturally competent healthcare, nutritionally targeted meal service, and so much more. It is an honor to have the opportunity to rise with St. Anthony’s to new levels of leadership and service for the poor”.

As the Foundation’s Executive Director, Roeseler will help raise funds for the new Dining Room. The new Dining Room will be built on the same site as the original Dining Room, which operates today as it did in 1950 from a converted parking garage in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. The Dining Room currently serves 2,600 meals a day.

“These are challenging times for many people, and St. Anthony’s has stepped up to meet the needs of more people than ever before while serving the community’s most vulnerable, “Roeseler said. “This is also a time of tremendous energy and excitement among San Franciscans who are looking to be a part of St. Anthony’s in building its capacity to make a difference. I am looking forward to working with the Foundation’s outstanding supporters to make the vision of the new Dining Room a reality.”

Roeseler has been committed to community service throughout her career. She was a Sister of Mercy for 8 years, and has worked with Yolo County Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center and Catholic Healthcare West/Mercy Healthcare. She has a B.A. in Social Work, Sociology, and Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is completing a Masters in Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union- Jesuit School of Theology.

St. Anthony Foundation is a 60 year old San Francisco institution whose 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.