At St. Anthony’s, every day is Veterans Day.  Nearly one in four of the 3,000 meals we serve in the Dining Room every day is served to a veteran.  We serve the soldiers who served in seven wars, dating as far back as World War II.  Veterans, like many people in need, rely on an open door at St. Anthony’s, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  For the men and women who have given so much to our country, we honor their service by giving back to them.

On Friday, November 11^th, St. Anthony’s will join forces with Craig Newmark of craigslist.org; the Department of Veterans Affairs; Elie Levy, the President and CEO of Planet Sox; and Chrome Shoes company to provide every veteran who eats at St. Anthony’s with a new pair of socks and shoes.

We invite you to join us in our pledge to honor the service of all veterans by donating socks, shoes, or cash to ensure St. Anthony’s continues to walk together with our brothers and sisters in need.  For more information on veterans and ways to help St. Anthony’s, please visit our website at http://www.stanthonysf.org/.

3 years ago San Francisco Network Ministries and the St. Anthony Foundation collaborated to create the Tenderloin Technology Lab. Utilizing the resources that both organizations were using at their respective computer labs, San Francisco Network Ministries and the St. Anthony Foundation were able to lay the groundwork for the Tenderloin Technology Lab as it is today. After many changes and upgrades, the Tenderloin Technology Lab is glad to serve around 100 people a day, operate 35 computers, offer daily computer classes, and have a bustling drop-in lab. This year the Tech Lab decided to ring in their anniversary with a Halloween themed party. Awards were given to best DJ, best party caterer, and the guests who have been with the Tech Lab from the beginning. A great time was had by all and we look forward to many more years.

Last night UCSF hosted its third annual University Community Partnerships (UCP) Celebration at Genentech Hall on the UCSF Mission Bay Campus. Keynote Speaker Estela Garcia, Executive Director of the Instituto Familiar de la Raza, spoke on the role of collaboration in the health of our communities: “Collaboration can strengthen our efforts and increase our capacity to serve our communities; only in this way will we attain true health equity.”  The Office of University Community Partnerships exists to facilitate collaborative relationships between the University and local community organizations. In addition to acting as liaison, helping university partners and local organizations work with each other, UCP is also a grantmaker, which has funded collaborations since 2008. This year alone, the UCP funded 18 partnerships, ranging in focus from health and family services to education and economic initiatives.

St. Anthony Medical Clinic is proud to have been a 2011 Large Grant Recipient in this innovative program with the collaboration “IMPROVE: Improving Management and Patient Respiratory Outcomes through Validated Education: Asthma and COPD.” For several years, SAMC and UCSF School of Pharmacy have been building a successful relationship through both the Telepharmacy program (a key component of the Diabetes Clinic) as well as through the Asthma & COPD clinic.  Project IMPROVE is designed to help patients take control of their asthma and COPD through education and self-management skills. It is the only asthma program offering patient education by a certified asthma educator for uninsured patients in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The Asthma & COPD Clinic benefits not only the target community, but also the community of San Francisco as a whole, as future pharmacists participate in culturally, demographically, and linguistically appropriate clinical care of asthma and COPD patients.

The UCP Celebration illustrated the great work being done through these collaborations, particularly by the winners of the Excellence in Partnership Awards including: UCSF MedLink, a collaboration between UCSF and USF Upward Bound; Painting Healthier Smiles, a collaboration of UCSF School of Dentistry and the SF Department of Public Health; and Physical Activity Referrals to the Community, a joint effort of UCSF WATCH Clinic and Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. Collaborations like these underscore how much we can accomplish when we work together with respect and appreciation for the diversity of resources that already exist in our city.

(in photo: Nurse Jackie Mojigo with a patient in the Asthma Clinic.)

It’s official! The St. Anthony Foundation Holiday phone line has kicked into gear as of October 15th, and it’s ringing with voices wanting to lend a hand and heart during the Season. It’s wonderful to hear the familiar sound of folks who’ve come in past years—volunteering at St. Anthony’s having become a part of their own Holiday tradition. And it’s great to hear the voices of those who are coming to St. Anthony’s for the first time, inspired by a variety of reasons– the tough economy for so many; encouraged perhaps by a family member or friend who has volunteered at St. Anthony’s before; even a web search for places to volunteer at this time of year, and more. . .

Our Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day volunteer opportunities are covered very shortly after the Holiday Line begins receiving messages, and it’s heartening that so many want to share these days by giving themselves in service! The Holiday Season isn’t just a 2-day stretch however. Whether you’re eating in the Dining Room or serving the meals to those who are in line, the Holiday Season prevails at least through most of November and most of December…into the first of the New Year. Store fronts begin exhibiting Holiday decorations and merchandise these days as early as September! We need and appreciate all the volunteer support from folks who offer to help on these days as well. In addition to Holiday Season Volunteers in the Dining Room, we also need volunteers to help out in our Curbside Drive the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas when generous folks literally drive right up to the curb to drop off donations of food and clothing for the guests and clients of St. Anthony Foundation. Our Curbside volunteers help make this possible. And there are other opportunities as well, updated regularly on the Holiday Line.

The Holiday Season can be a time of such good will.  It can also be especially hard on the many who can’t consider going into those decorated shops to buy the trimmings and gifts for sale. Volunteering at St. Anthony’s during the Holidays and giving the gift of service is definitely a genuine way to acknowledge the differences in resources between people, differences that can be all the more magnified at this time of year. Part of the healing that seems to happen when people do volunteer here, not only during the Holidays but throughout the year, is the joyful exclamation from so many volunteers –not so much about what they’ve given, but about what they have received from serving others. For many, certainly including myself—the entire exchange of giving and receiving – how it becomes sharing is the sweetest and most promising gift of all.

Just in case you’d like to call the St. Anthony Holiday Line
to volunteer this Season: 415-592-2829
is ready to receive your wonderful voice! Thank you!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to reflect upon how many of our lives have been touched by this all-too widespread disease. The American Cancer Society estimates that 230,480 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, and that approximately 40,000 women will die from breast cancer this year alone. Currently there are approximately 2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the U.S. While there have been improvements in mortality rates in recent years, disparities among populations continue to exist. Some of these disparities are believed to be related to genetics and/or lifestyle, while others are driven by lack of access to information and resources. Women living in poverty and with low-wage jobs which offer no access to insurance are particularly at risk for delaying screenings.

St. Anthony Medical Clinic currently provides primary care to approximately 1,663 women, including annual clinical breast exams and breast health teaching. In June 2011 SAMC received a generous grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support the SAMC Breast Health Program, an expansion of the education and outreach services already provided by the Clinic. Funding from the Komen Foundation will help us reduce barriers to access to screening and treatment for uninsured women in San Francisco, while also reducing the cultural and linguistic barriers which make accessing breast health resources that much more daunting for immigrant women. With this funding we launched quarterly Women’s Health Days in June to provide education and outreach to our regular patients and to other women from the community to learn about breast health, receive clinical screenings and get their annual mammogram. The Komen Foundation funding has further allowed the Clinic to function as a coordinator and facilitator of services and follow-up for low-income, uninsured women with San Francisco General Hospital through the MammoMobile, which will visit the Clinic monthly, and through SF General Diagnostic Mammography.

On September 25^th, the SAMC was present at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Expo on the Embarcadero. Clinic director Dr. Ana Valdes is pictured at the expo to the left, and behind her is Michelle Loya-Talamantes, Community Health Programs Director at the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Dechen and Dawa are the Free Clothing Program’s resident parakeets. Their names are Tibetan. Dechen means great bliss. Dawa means moon.

They help remind our volunteer groups of our Franciscan roots – that, plus a small statue in their cage. I always tell them that Francis began by loving and serving the poor. Then he got so holy that animals started landing on him. I’m the exact opposite. I need to start with something cute and cuddly to feel warm and compassionate. Then I can work my way up to people.

Back in June, St. Anthony’s partnered with anti-hunger organizations and advocacy groups from across California to help educate people about the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Restaurant Meals Program. The Restaurant Meals Program is part of the the CalFresh program (the new name for California’s food stamp program) and it allows CalFresh recipients who live in a place without a cooking facility (a Single Room Occupancy hotel room, for example), or who are homeless, elderly, or disabled to use their CalFresh benefits at a restaurant.

We talked to our Dining Room guests about their use of the program and its importance in helping them obtain healthy meals. Some of their stories were recounted here. After hearing the stories of our Dining Room guests, we realized how important both the Restaurant Meals program and our Dining Room are to low income people who can’t afford food and who don’t have the ability to cook their own food at home.

We are proud to have helped with the making of this video, which does a great job of telling the stories of some of the Californians who benefit from Restaurant Meals. Please check out the video and the SNAP Restaurant Meals website to learn more about this important program.

Walking up Jones Street this morning around 9am I heard excited chatter about Chicken Pot Pie coming from the lunch line that was already forming outside of St. Anthony’s Dining Room. That’s how I found out today’s meal was, yes, Chicken Pot Pie! YUM.

The lunch line wrapping down Golden Gate Ave.

This is a picture of some volunteers from Bishop O’Dowd High School eating with guests in the Dining Room.

A big thanks to them for joining us today!

Franciscan Values III:

We believe we have a prophetic role to play in addressing the power structures of society, and seek to be advocates for and with people who are poor, disadvantaged & outcast.

“I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

These days there seems to be no lack of people in our society seeking justice.  Tea Party & Wall Street protesters seeking reform from government or big business interests they perceive as threats to the American way of life have peppered the news for months.  To us the issues of injustice in America and in San Francisco have a more personal face that we see all the time.  Every day St. Anthony Foundation feeds, clothes, and offers medical treatment to thousands of our city’s disenfranchised citizens.

Here at the Father Alfred Center we open our doors to men of no means that are suffering from the deadly disease of addiction.  Many have found themselves in unsustainable situations and lifestyles from which they are unable to break free.  While here, they are not given a free ride, but instead are asked to work hard for what they receive.  In exchange for their time and effort we offer them a new plan to live life on life’s terms.  They are shown a new way forward that will lead them to a better life, if only they are bold enough to accept it.

During this process these men are taught the value of responsibility and accountability.  They are taught to seek answers from a higher power, and not from a syringe, a pipe, or the bottom of a bottle.  With the skills they learn at Father Alfred Center our residents re-enter society, ready to work & ready to live life anew.  One at a time they change their society by helping those still in need as they themselves were helped.

Sadly some of our residents do not make it to the end.  They stray from the path and have to start over, or simply never recover in time to avoid the terminal consequences of their disease.  However for the brave and determined that prove themselves willing to overcome the obstacles in their path, there is salvation, there is recovery, there is justice.

As an organization well aware of the challenges and joys of serving free meals to those in need, we have the utmost respect for our partner organizations who also work each day to feed our community.

One such organization is taking a unique approach to feeding the hungry. Called ‘Curry Without Worry,’ this nonprofit serves authentic Nepalese food, at no cost, each Tuesday at 5:30 pm in U.N. Plaza, on Hyde and Fulton streets. It was founded in 2006 and so far has served 26,220 free meals. While the organization’s website states that their main focus is serving those who most need a meal, they believe that “hunger is not defined by an empty stomach,” and open their meals to any individuals that wish to join them.

Founded by Shrawan Nepali, a native of Nepal, Curry Without Worry offers something of a cultural experience in addition to tasty food: “Meals are accompanied by drumming, singing, learning and leisure.” Much like each day at St. Anthony’s Dining Room, Curry Without Worry’s weekly service proves that nothing brings people together quite like sharing a hot meal.

Learn more about the organization at www.currywithoutworry.org