St. Anthony Foundation Executive Director Shari Roeseler appears in today’s San Francisco Chronicle with a moving Open Forum piece concerning potential budget cuts that would affect low-income families, seniors, people with disabilities and homeless seeking employment.
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A year after the heavily debated prohibition against sitting or lying on San Francisco sidewalks was proposed, police have begun to enforce the law. The debate continues with supporters of the law claiming it is working and opponents claiming that it targets individuals who are homeless or mentally ill.
The first week’s numbers indicate that police in the city have handed out 75 warnings and eight citations. Citations range from $50 to $500 and potentially even jail time.
“The emphasis is not to cite, but to inform and offer services,” said police spokesman Sgt. Mike Andraychak to the Associated Press on Sunday.
Many residents of the areas Police have begun enforcing the new law have their doubts. Bruce Wolfe, vice president of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, doesn’t think the law will work and believes it to infringe upon civil rights.
“It seems a little bit overextended, overreaching. I just find to make everybody have to be on their two feet moving and walking seems very odd for a city to demand,” Wolfe said. “That it would have this huge drastic effect on changing the social landscape of the city, I just don’t see it.”
SF Giants Inspire Community Support by Serving Monumental Meal
As area nonprofits brace for continued budget cuts and a potential housing setback for veterans, St. Anthony Foundation prepares to serve its 37 millionth meal. Between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 12, St. Anthony’s will ‘momentarily pause’ the usual service to honor the significant moment with San Francisco Giants players, celebrating a ‘giant’ contribution to the community.
St. Anthony’s has provided unwavering support for the hungry and homeless for 60 years. Advancing upon this milestone, community support is what’s celebrated because it is that which has made possible these years of service. At the same time, the organization is also humbled by the prospect for increasing need.
“Out of approximately 2600 daily meals we provide, nearly one quarter of them are to veterans,” said Shari Roeseler, Executive Director for St. Anthony’s. “As we approach this significant milestone, we’re also planning for what could result from reduced veteran housing vouchers and government funding for other pillar San Francisco organizations. Because we’re privately supported, we often pick up where others are limited, so community building is even more critical for St. Anthony’s at this time.”
Veteran’s services are nothing new to St. Anthony’s. In 1950, the Foundation was established to provide support in an economy still recovering from World War II. Today, with veterans returning home from recent unrest, the road to re-entry is more challenging as benefits are reduced and the need for services has become more pronounced.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, two trends are largely responsible for the continued rise in homelessness: A growing shortage of affordable rental housing and simultaneous increase in poverty. Our current ongoing recession, compounded with a lack of veteran’s housing vouchers will most certainly impact our nonprofit infrastructure.
“As we honor our 37 millionth meal and our 60th anniversary this fall, we continue to look ahead and prepare for an increase in the need for our services. With the help of the community, St. Anthony’s will serve our 40 millionth meal in our new Dining Room, which we hope will open in 2014,” said Roeseler.
In preparation for the coldest temperatures in the Bay Area since the 1970’s, St. Anthony’s opened the doors to its Dining Room for two nights last weekend (Friday, 2/25/11 and Saturday, 2/26/11) to ensure homeless residents of San Francisco had a warm, safe place to take refuge. The two-night emergency shelter was a joint effort between St. Anthony’s, the Red Cross, and the San Francisco Human Service Agency. Thanks to this partnership, 150 individuals spent one or both nights in St. Anthony’s Dining Room. The Red Cross provided cots, blankets, refreshments and the San Francisco Human Service Agency along with the Homeless Outreach Team spread the word throughout the city to people who would otherwise spend the night outside. In the words of two emergency shelter guests, “Thank you, thank you, thank you forty times over” and “this is what happens when you all talk the talk and walk the walk.”
Anyone who takes frequent walks through the Tenderloin has most likely noticed these sleek banners (see photo) installed around the neighborhood. San Franciscans tend to forget that the Tenderloin is one of the more architecturally interesting neighborhoods in the city, and the banners serve as a reminder that just a few square blocks are home to an awful lot of buildings that are intriguing to the eye and integral to San Francisco history.
Learn more about TL architecture and history at the websites of the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District and North of Market-Tenderloin Benefit District, and read photographer Mark Ellinger’s blog, Up from the Deep. And next time you’re in the neighborhood, spend a few minutes getting acquainted with some of its 409 historic buildings. It might mean setting aside some time to stroll the streets and observe buildings up close, but one thing usually true about the Tenderloin is that it rewards those who bother to take a closer look.
While thousands were waiting in anticipation for Sunday’s Kraft Hunger Bowl game at AT&T park, a special pre-game huddle was taking place at St. Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco’s Tenderloin with players from Boston College.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA January 6, 2011 While thousands wait in anticipation for Sunday’s Kraft Hunger Bowl game at AT&T park, a special pre-game huddle will be taking place the day before at St. Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.
Boston College Eagles Players and staffers will be tackling hunger at St. Anthony’s on Saturday as they volunteer to serve meals provided by Kraft Foods to San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents.
“Our Huddle to Fight Hunger game plan is a winner on all fronts. We’re going to deliver much needed meals for our neighbors in need. We helped raise awareness about a serious social issue affecting one in six Americans.” said Stephen Chriss, Senior Director, Corporate Scale & Marketing Partnerships, Kraft Foods North America.
“St. Anthony Foundation is thrilled to be a beneficiary of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. At a time when we are seeing increasing numbers of people who simply cannot stretch their dollars to cover food costs, the support and contributions from the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl event is vitally important.” Noted St. Anthony’s Executive Director Shari Roeseler.
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 3000 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.
Christmas is a challenging time for many families. Today St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic and McKesson Corporate Citizens Department will give out hundreds of toys, beautifully wrapped and age appropriate, to families in need.
St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic is one of the many free, life-sustaining programs and services of St. Anthony Foundation that helps to heal individuals and families. The Clinic, which is the only free pediatric clinic in the Tenderloin, provides over 12,000 patient visits annually, of which approximately 25% are pediatric visits. St. Anthony Foundation is not funded by federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely supported by private donations.
WHEN: TODAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010
1:00PM to 4:30 PM
WHERE: St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic
150 Golden Gate Avenue
WHAT: TOY GIVEAWAY
(for patients of the St, Anthony Free Medical Clinic)
CONTACT: Francis Aviani, 510-301-4634
| As the 99-ers (those who have exhausted all their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits) brace themselves for the new year, St. Anthony’s is preparing as well by stocking up on donations of food and clothing that will be in even greater demand in the new year. St Anthony’s 23rd Curbside Holiday Donation re-opens on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 until December 24th. St. Anthony Foundation staff and volunteers, wearing easily identifiable red jackets, will take delivery of food, clothing, and monetary donations at curbside, so donors won’t even have to leave their cars. Donated items are distributed free of charge to San Francisco’s most needy residents. |
Among the most cherished items that will be collected are hand-knit scarves which will be given out to Dining Room guests on Christmas Day. To date, over 3,000 scarves have been received from 20 states. The curbside donation drive opens on Saturday, December 18th at 9am, where clean, cared-for warm clothing, canned or dried bulk foods, and monetary donations can be dropped off to St. Anthony’s “donation valets”. As more and more people turn to the 60-year old non-profit for basic necessities as a result of the current economic crisis, the support from everyday citizens is needed, welcomed, and appreciated. (more…)
Sixty years is long time for an organization to keep moving forward, particularly a nonprofit that was started from a place of pure heart from a Franciscan friar in 1950. St. Anthony’s has gone through many growth spurts over the years, and to mark the time that we are moving into, balancing the outgrowth in services in the clutches of a challenging economy, we were blessed to befriend an amazing design and branding firm that helped us come up with a new image to better reflect who we are and the work we do. Check out one of our new banners, designed by Merkatos Moore, featuring long time volunteer coordinator Barbara. (The Safeway Foundation and Bank of America paid for the banners production and installation-thank you!)