At St. Anthony Free Clothing Program, we always appreciate the donors who bring us clothing, especially from a distance — the North Bay, the East Bay, the Peninsula, and the South Bay. Once in a while we get donations by mail from as far away as the East coast. But a donor set a new record last week when he sent us clothes from Seoul, South Korea! Thanks for thinking of us and our guests!

We had a wonderful group of volunteers from Murray Hills Christian Church in Beaverton, Oregon, come visit the Free Clothing Program. They not only helped us give clothes to our guests, when they were done they went shopping and came back with bags and bags of socks and underwear to give to our guests. Thanks!!!!

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.

Students from Mercy High School, an all-girls college-preparatory school in San Francisco, just brought a van full of donations from their most recent clothing drive.

The clothing they collected will go to help poor and homeless families and individuals at St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program.

Thanks, ladies! You are awesome!

Every year clothing distributor Mariana Chuquin prepares Mother’s Day gift bags for the ladies who come to St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program. She hands them out during family and women’s clothing services around Mothers Day.

One year a guest looked inside the bag and said, “I don’t want this junk.” Refusing the gift.

Mariana was hurt and thought, “Well, I won’t waste my time then.”

The next year she didn’t make the gift bags. Only then did she hear how much our guests appreciate them. “It’s so thoughtful!” and “It’s the only thing I get for Mother’s Day.”

She started making them again and has been making them ever since.

Karma is defined by some as the beneficial effects that are derived from past beneficial actions. In the case of donating clothes, its the best of all worlds, because you get to enjoy your clothing for a period of time, and then pass it on to be of benefit for someone else in their future. And maybe yours, karmaticaly speaking. Its sort of “what goes around comes around” in real time.

Jay just increased his karma and our desperately needed clothing supply through his annual potluck clothing swap, at Mission Yoga. After the swap he brought five carts of clothes to the St. Anthony Free Clothing Program to be given, for free, for people who really need it. Thanks and Namaste!

Thanks to everyone who has responded to our call for clothing donations. As you can see from the picture, we have donations in the “pit” thanks to your generosity and your response.

We serve an average of 600 men, women, and children every week in the Free Clothing Program. That pile in the pit will go quickly serving that many guests. Please continue to help our guests by asking your friends, neighbors and coworkers: “Have you done your spring cleaning yet? Please take your old clean, gently used clothing to St. Anthony’s. They give everything away to the poor.”

Thanks for all the help you’ve given to us and our guests.

Times are hard and you have your own worries. But you know that things aren’t any easier for the people who come to St. Anthony Foundation for help.

We have some easy ways you can keep giving, or even give more, to buy food, clothing, and healthcare for your low-income neighbors. Here’s Easy Giving Number 4.

Do a Drive.

Organize your family, friends, social group, professional association, church or congregation to collect something the guests at St. Anthony’s need.

1. Do a clothing drive. St. Anthony’s clothing supply has run pretty low. We’re putting out the call for more clothes: washed, repaired, and ready to wear.

Bring them to the Free Clothing Program @ 101 8th Street and Mission.

See Ty Hilkert’s blog last week for a list of what we need and what we can’t take. (Or call at 415-592-2826 or email thilkert@stanthonysf.org.)

2. Do a sock drive. We’ve talked about a sock party in your home. Your guests bring $5 and a pair of socks for our guests. Try a sock drive without the party. There is no time of year we do not need them. There is no St. Anthony’s program that does not use them. We can provide boxes or bins or simply send signs for you to make your own collection bin.

3. Do a toiletries drive. New, unopened, any size:

Bring them to our offices @ 150 Golden Gate or to the Free Clothing Program @ 101 8th Street and Mission.

4. Assemble self-care bags. New, unopened, travel size only.

Put the bags in a shopping bag or box addressed to “Social Work Center.”

Bring them to 150 Golden Gate, between Jones and Leavenworth.

If people like you take simple steps like this, we really will get through the hard times together.

We’re hitting cement in the basement of the Free Clothing Program early this year. We’ve almost run out of clothes to sort.

Spring begins this weekend. If the warm, sunny weather puts you in the mood for spring cleaning, could you please clean out your closets and donate the clean, gently used clothes you no longer want? Ask your friends and neighbors.

Please consider sponsoring a clothing drive in your neighborhood or at your work, school, place of worship, gym, yoga studio, favorite nightclub, or social group. In the City of San Francisco, we offer free box drop off and pick up for clothing drives. Please contact Ty Hilkert, Assistant Manager of the Free Clothing Program, for more information. Email thilkert@stanthonysf.org or call (415) 592-2801.