!If you haven’t made it to Commonwealth restaurant yet (theProgessive-American restaurant located in the heart of the Mission District from former Bar Tartine chef Jason Fox and Mission Street Food co-founder Anthony Myint), now is your chance. Or rather, the week of September 14th-19th is your chance to try  inventive tasting menus and know you are helping out St. Anthony’s.

For the week of September 14th – September 19th, $10 from each tasting menu will go to The St. Anthony Foundation. That equates to 22 meals in the St. Anthony Dining Room!

Bon Appétit!

Wow!  So far we have received 660 pledges for hand knit scarves, reaching 26% of our total goal of 2,500.  Great progress!

We have received 251 scarves to date That’s 10%of our goal. Thanks to all you early knitters for getting us off to such a good start.

We welcome these new organizations who have joined the St. Anthony Foundation Scarving Artists project. Thank you!

National Charity League
Bobbin’s Nest Studio
Pearlessence Yarns
SF Renegade Craft Faire

Do you have an organization who would like to participate? Let us know!

On Wednesday August 11th, State Legislators & other politicians in Sacramento met with everyday people to discuss alternative ways to balance the CA budget with out cutting money from vital social programs. Residents at Father Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, residents went there with the Jusice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy program and The Health and Human Services Network to show the face of those in treatment.

HHS Came to the talks with three stated goals.
• “To Invest in and protect the health and human services vital to California’s economy and families.”
• “To champion alternatives to dismantling our health care and human services including targeted state revenues and federal recovery funds.”
• And finally, “To reform and re-invent the states broken budget process.”

Father Alfred Center Residents who attended spoke on a number of issues related to these goals.

For example, California currently imposes a lifetime ban on food stamps for individuals who are convicted of drug related felonies (even those in recovery). One resident who spoke at the event told me, “Food Stamps help Stimulate the economy among other things. By keeping them from those seeking treatment, the economy is denied that stimulation effect.”

Other ideas proposed were a nickel tax on all alcoholic beverages sold in CA, and a tax on imported oil.

When I asked her to comment Colleen Rivecca of St. Anthony Foundation’s Jusice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy program told me:

“One of the budget balancing strategies in the Governor’s Budget Proposal is to cut the benefit levels for people receiving SSI/SSP grants. SSI/SSP recipients are low-income blind, elderly and disabled people, and they are ineligible for Food Stamps. People receiving SSI/SSP have already received 3 grant level reductions within the past year. The guys talked about the growing numbers of seniors and people with disabilities that they see every day while working in at St. Anthony Dining Room – they said that these people are already struggling to make ends meet, and a further reduction in their benefits would make it even more difficult for them to survive.”

A lot of good ideas were exchanged at the meeting, and as always Father Alfred Center Residents and St Anthony Foundation was there to do their part.

Asthma in the Tenderloin
The Tenderloin has the highest citywide rate for ambulatory hospitalizations associated with COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and the second highest rate for asthma. According to a 2007 UCLA Health Policy Research Brief, one in six of California’s 2.8 million residents with active asthma live below poverty level. In addition to having poorer overall health, low-income residents also miss more school and work because of asthma, visit the emergency department for asthma care more often, and experience more frequent symptoms.

“Tenderloin residents live in old, poorly maintained buildings whose dust, mold, and other environmental factors dramatically increase asthma incidents.” noted St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic Director, Dr. Ana Valdés. “We try to address those factors through education, active medical care, and asthma management techniques.”

St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic
Established in 1956, the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic is the first Free Medical Clinic in the United States. The clinic provides 12,000 patient care visits annually, nearly 3,000 of which are chronic care visits, Asthmatic patient account for about 9% of total visits.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

St. Anthony’s begins collecting scarves for the holidays at Renegade Craft Fair

This year, Christmas really will begin in July, as San Francisco historic non-profit St. Anthony Foundation begins collecting hand made scarves as well as pledges to knit scarves at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco. St. Anthony’s hopes to collect a few thousand scarves by Christmas, which will then be handed out at St. Anthony’s well known Christmas holiday meal to guests of the St. Anthony Dining Room.

The official scarf drive will kick off at the San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair http://www.renegadecraft.com/san-francisco on Saturday July 31^st and Sunday August 1^st at Fort Mason Center. St. Anthony’s monthly underground knitting club, the Scarving Artists, have already received pledges for more than 100 scarves, and have already received more than a few richly colored, thoughtfully knitted items. The first 250 scarf pledges will receive a canvass tote knitting bag and an invitation to return with their hand-knitted items at the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Show taking place on December 22 in San Francisco.

St. Anthony’s will also host a “how to knit for the homeless” workshop at the fair and will invite people to be a part of their social justice flash-knit-ins which take place throughout the city.

Each year, St. Anthony’s offers some gift of comfort to those who come to the 60 year old foundation for a Christmas meal. This year, St. Anthony’s is reaching out to the city of San Francisco’s craft artists to help provide some holiday warmth and cheer to the disenfranchised by pledging hand-made knit scarves which will be given out on Christmas day at the St. Anthony Dining Room.

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco is free to attend and is one of the seven fairs throughout the United States that Renegade Handmade is hosting this year. The Bay’s favorite craft, art, design and DIY spectacular will feature over 225 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation.

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.

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Wednesday, August 4th is “Teddy Bear Clinic” day here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic! California Pacific Medical Center is joining us in hosting this special clinic day to teach asthmatic children about how to manage asthma at school, at home, and in case of an attack.

At the “Teddy Bear Clinic,” located at 150 Golden Gate in the 1st Floor, kids can come in to adopt their very own teddy bear and join clinic staff for an afternoon of play and learning how to take care of their bear.

This special clinic teaches kids to take care of the asthma symptoms for their new teddy bear friend and then provides kids with the opportunity to work one-on-one with Asthma Educators to learn how to better manage their own asthma.

A special thanks to California Pacific Medical Center Child Life Services for helping us put on this fantastic event!

Saturday July 17th from 10am to 12pm-the St. Anthony Scarving Artists are meeting again for a morning of knitting and jazz, at 150 Golden Gate Ave. Learn to knit and help us reach our goal to knit 2500 scarves by Christmas!

Event season is upon us, and yes that means the Development and Communications departments are running full steam ahead, but it also means it is a time to reflect on the year past and the coming year and share with constituents the amazing things their support has made possible.

We are introducing a new Executive Director, we are celebrating St. Anthony’s 60th anniversary in just a few months, and every day there are amazing stories of gratitude shared among guests and volunteers.  What has been a challenging few years for everyone has been exceptionally hard on the poor and low-income folks who come to St. Anthony Foundation. Yet the work continues, the community continues to grow, and all hands have pulled together to ensure we are here for those who need us most.

In a climate like this, one might not necessarily expect gratitude or celebration.  However, we see it every day. Small steps toward stability from the outside eye may not seem like such large milestones, but when the obstacles overcome are so momentous, so are the celebrations.

Now it’s time for us to put our thinking caps on and find the best way possible to share those moments of gratitude, of life-changing connections made, and community built that happen every day at St. Anthony’s.

On the first Wednesday of every month a special event takes place at St Anthony’s Father Alfred Center. It’s a day when friends and family gather together along with residents, staff and guests from St Anthony Foundation’s many other programs. They gather to give congratulations and to say a few words to (and about) those residents who have completed the year long residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. This day is better known as Graduation.

Graduating residents typically dress up their best attire, though some choose to dress more casual. The Ceremony starts with a blessing from the Chaplin’s department.

Staff from peripheral programs with in the St Anthony Foundation such as the Dining Room, Tenderloin Tech Lab, Social Works Center and others come up next to share stories about the graduates, and thank them for their service.

The MC next invites up volunteers who facilitate groups to talk about their experiences with the graduates and addiction in general. Alumni and residents in the 4th phase are then encouraged to say a few words. Sometimes residents will perform a song, or poem that they have worked on.

Family and Friends are welcomed to come up to the microphone and talk about their experiences with the graduates. This is followed typically by the Father Alfred Center Councilors and staff. Staff comments and stories finish off with the 4th phase councilors giving their clients a certificate of completion and their 1 year sober chip.

Finally the graduates themselves have a chance to say their peace. This is often heartfelt and sincere with thanks and gratitude to spare. At the end the Staff gathers around the mic to read the Creed. The Creed is followed by the Serenity prayer and a fantastic meal prepared by the Father Alfred Center Kitchen Crew

Yesterday career counselors from as far as Colorado, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, and from other parts of the country descended upon San Francisco for a conference put together by the National Career Development Association. Before their conference, however, the team of counselors led by Rebecca Toporek made a pit stop to the Tenderloin and found themselves in the Poverello room of 150 Golden Gate Avenue. The counselors were available to give advice, discuss obstacles to employment, and address topics found commonly in the job search process. Over 25 individuals benefited from insight these career counselors posses.

The make up of the attendees ranged from regular Tenderloin Tech Lab guests as well as new recruits from the Dining Room. Guests, volunteers, and staff were able to enjoy bagels and Peet’s coffee – donations provided by NCDA. The event was two hours but easily could have gone on all day judging by the eagerness of our guests and the generosity of the counselors. From the staff end of things, it was a pleasure working with this group of counselors and absolutely amazing how stress free and easy it was to organize an event that was both impactful and helpful. We hope to see the counselors next time they are in town and look forward to working with NCDA and their local chapter in the near future!