Avon Comprehensive Breast Care Team Pose in front of the upgraded van.

St. Anthony Medical Clinic strives to provide all of our neighbors in the Tenderloin with the highest quality health care possible. Sometimes this means providing acute care for patients in crisis, more often it means providing primary care, chronic disease management and preventive health coaching.

To build on these interventions, we have established partnerships with other social service and health care providers throughout the city to ensure that our patients have access to specialty and diagnostic services they might need. One such partnership, with SFGH’s Mobile Outreach Van, provides our patients with access to digital mammography services that are difficult to obtain without insurance and which could be life-saving. The upgraded “Mammo Mobile” will give thousands more low-income San Franciscans, including patients of St. Anthony Medical Clinic, access to services they could not otherwise secure.

As a guest to the Dining Room during our senior service hour, Eldina Tronco is regularly served meals by our team of volunteers.  Little did we know she is also quite the volunteer herself. When Eldina came to the Dining Room for a meal of Hungarian Goulash on Thursday, she brought along a certificate congratulating her on 3,254 hours of volunteer service at Laguna Honda Hospital, a city-owned long-term care and rehabilitation hospital serving seniors and adults with disabilities.

Eldina volunteered in the hospice care department at Laguna Honda, providing companionship to patients and helping to organize medical records for the staff.  Still driven to give back, she is transitioning away from helping strangers to focus on caring for her ailing brother.  Thank you for your service, Eldina—you’re an inspiration to us all!

Editor’s note: This blog entry was written by Sofia Andrade, a University of San Francisco student who is doing a service learning project with St. Anthony’s.  St. Anthony’s has been noticing an increase in the number of families with children who eat in our free dining room, and we’ve worked with service learners to learn more about them.  Here is one of their stories.

The Dining Room at St. Anthony’s sees people from all walks of life come into the front doors. Across racial divides, young or old, disabled or not, thousands come into the Dining Room every week to seek a warm meal and to find a sense of community. Families also find solace in the Dining Room services and bring their children in to share a meal together. The following is a story of one such family whom I had the pleasure of dining with.

For the purposes of maintaining guest confidentiality I will refer to the family as the Smith family consisting of Paul and his two sons Todd (a highly functioning autistic sophomore in high school) and David (a bright eyed energetic 4^th grader).  The Smith family lives together in a small apartment near the South of Market neighborhood, and comes into the St. Anthony’s dining hall once a week when the boys are out of school and Paul has the day off.

During the week, Paul works part time in the public sector doing labor and environmental maintenance. When asked how he and his family was affected by the financial downturn of 2008, he responded “I was one of the lucky ones because I got to keep my job, but in a perfect world I would be able to find stable, well-paying employment.” The Smith family rate their ability to meet their needs as “just getting by” as the majority of their finances go to paying the rent, and very little is left over for other expenses. In explaining their involvement in the National School Lunch Program, Paul mentions his frustration about how families are qualified for the service saying “they only look at the income and they don’t take into account all of the other expenses that we have in our life.” Since money is tight, Paul subsidizes his expenses by bringing his family to St. Anthony’s once a week when he can. “I feel comfortable coming here. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about the other dining halls in the area, but the people here are nice,” Paul explains as David vigorously nods in agreement. Despite the fact that they were surrounded by some of the most poverty-stricken individuals in San Francisco, the Smiths seemed to be as normal as any family could be as Paul reminds Todd to wipe his mouth in a very fatherly fashion.

In talking with the boys, I realized that they had very high standards set for themselves. Todd wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Navy when he’s old enough while the young David is aiming to become an engineer or an architect. Paul reminds his son “If you want to do that you have to study very hard and get good grades in math.” In hearing that I am a student at the University of San Francisco, David becomes very quiet then shyly looks up at me and asks “they have a baseball team at USF right?” It turns out David is a huge baseball fan and looks forward to the day when his dad will take him to a Giants game. Paul turns to me “I’m waiting to get the free tickets I got a couple years back when I took Todd, so I can take David this time.” One of the financial difficulties Paul mentions is not being able to provide for his sons to the extent that he would like. “It’s hard having a teenager,” he exclaims, “they want all of the fancy things like iPhones. But I try to provide for them to the best of my ability.” When asked what he needs in order to improve his situation, Paul responds “a full time job.”

This is a story that many in San Francisco, and even across the country experience; the struggles of balancing financial difficulties caused by under-employment with the desire to provide a normal life for their children. While it is a difficult process to face, I applaud all of the strong parents out there who do all that they can to make sure that their children are happy, and I am in awe of the unrelenting support the employees of organizations such as St. Anthony’s continue to provide for those who come through the door.

Join us on Friday, May 18th at 7:00 p.m. to listen to actor Martin Sheen share about his faith journey and how that has led him to work for social justice.  He is speaking in our interim Dining Room as a fundraiser for our partner organization, The Gubbio Project.

Each weekday from 6 am to 1 pm, The Gubbio Project provides “sacred sleep” and sanctuary on the pews of St. Boniface Church (located right across the street) to an average of 90 of our unhoused neighbors, most of whom eat at the Dining Room.

We’d love to have you share this event with us!  Tickets may be purchased online at thegubbioproject.org or call 415.861.5848  There is a limited number of seats, so get your tickets now.

The simple word “um” (pronounced “oom”) sparked a friendship in the St. Anthony Dining Room that bridged an ancient tradition with the hope of a new generation.  Dining Room guest Mut had struggled to find a safe place to land in the Tenderloin.  His limited grasp of English, along with the hustle and bustle of the streets in the Tenderloin, left him alone and panicky about finding his way.  That is until the day he met Rath, a member of our Client Safety Services team.   Rath recognized his signals of distress and approached Mut with one simple syllable um.

Um is a way of communicating respect to an elder in Cambodian, directly translated as Uncle.  Rath feels a special sense of pride when it comes to this friendship and said, “Mut feels safe knowing I am around.  He feels comfort here and now shares a meal with us daily.  Before this, he was in search of food everywhere.”  There are twenty-two languages spoken in the Tenderloin, a long-standing launch pad for recent immigrants to San Francisco.  St. Anthony’s Dining Room remains one of the places many immigrants turn to as they begin a new life.

Like so many people who have come before, and countless people who will come after, the St. Anthony Dining Room serves up more than food.  It is a place where friendships are made and worlds come together.

Soon, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees will be discussing SNAP/ Food Stamp legislation  (known as CalFresh in California).   SNAP is a critical nutrition benefit that helps low-income people to be able to purchase food.  SNAP benefits are used in grocery stores and supermarkets, providing an economic stimulus to local businesses while helping alleviate hunger for the people who receive benefits.

Because SNAP is such an important nutrition / anti-hunger program, Feeding America and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) are sponsoring call-in days April 17-19.  People from all across the nation will be calling their Congressional representatives to tell them to protect and strengthen the SNAP program.

Here’s how you can join in:

Call Your Senators Toll Free:  1-877-698-8228 – You will be directed to the offices of your Senators (Toll Free number courtesy of Feeding America.)

Call Your House Members:  202-225-3121 (Capitol Switchboard)

FRAC suggests that every communication to our Members of Congress should contain these three words:  strengthen, protect, SNAP.

FRAC has developed the following talking points to help us communicate with our legislators:

•    SNAP works. Weakening SNAP would lead to more hunger and food insecurity, worse health and educational outcomes, and higher health costs.
•    Increasing SNAP benefits reduce hunger. USDA researchers found that the boost to SNAP benefits included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) improved the food security of low-income households.
•    SNAP is responsive in times of need. SNAP’s responsiveness to unemployment proved it to be one of the most effective safety net programs during the recent recession, providing families with a stable source of food.
•    SNAP helps the most vulnerable. The average beneficiary household has an income of only 57 percent of the federal poverty guideline; and 84 percent of all benefits go to households with a child, senior, or disabled person.
•    SNAP lifts people out of poverty. SNAP lifted 3.9 million Americans above the poverty line in 2010, including 1.7 million children and 280,000 seniors.
•    SNAP has – for decades – enjoyed bipartisan support. Recent polling data from FRAC found that 77 percent of voters said that cutting SNAP would be the wrong way to reduce government spending. Every bipartisan deficit group in 2010-2011 has insulated it from cuts, including the Simpson-Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin commissions; the Gang of Six; and the August 2011 deficit agreement. In his FY2012 and FY2013 budgets the President has included proposals to strengthen the program.

For more information, visit the FRAC website.

Take me out to the ball game…to help build The New St. Anthony’s Dining Room.  Mark your calendars for St. Anthony’s big debut with the San Francisco Giants on April 27^th.  Our very own 2010 World Series Champions will take a swing to strike out hunger and inspire 44,000 Giants fans to be a part of the Miracle on Jones Street.  Shari Roeseler, our Executive Director, will join a team of supporters from St. Anthony’s and the Giants for our first ever Home Plate Ceremony.

Tickets for the game against the San Diego Padres are sold out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come down to 2^nd and King and enjoy the fun.  MoMo’s Restaurant, the proud sponsors of our 35^th Annual Penny Pitch, invite all St. Anthony supporters to watch this exciting game among friends.  We’re over 80% of the way to reaching our fundraising goal.  With the faithful support of the Giants, MoMo’s, and you, we’re rounding 3^rd and heading home to ensure millions of San Franciscans always have a place to turn to in a time of need.

2012 has proved to be an eventful year for the guests and staff of the Tenderloin Tech Lab (TTL), a partnership between St. Anthony’s and San Francisco Network Ministries.  Through a recent program with Caltrans, 22 TTL participants had the opportunity to earn some income while informing the public about the Bay Bridge closure over President’s Day weekend.  At our latest Tech Fair, 23 Tenderloin residents had their personal computers repaired at no cost, while others attended a seminar on purchasing a computer.

All 36 computer stations in the Tech Lab have been updated with Windows 7 and Office 2010 – no small feat for a community computer lab.  As a result of the upgrade, our guests are working with software that enhances their computer skills, job prospects, and keeps them caught up with the ever-evolving world of technology.  Another highlight in the Tech Lab has been the evolution of our Social Services Workshops.  Through a collaboration with the dedicated staff of St. Anthony’s Social Work Center, Tech Lab guests now have the opportunity to attend monthly workshops focusing on issues such as local housing.  Stay tuned for many more updates from the TTL as we change the world for the better, one click at a time.