The Israeli Consul General and the entire consulate staff volunteered at St. Anthony’s Dining Room today. In fact, they closed the office to do it. They not only helped serve today’s meal, but also prepped tomorrow’s Schuman Meal, one of five special meals St. Anthony’s serves annually that involves gourmet ingredients and a star entree. We definitely needed the extra hands.

The consulate staff took to heart Dolores’ request to greet guests and exchange a smile. They were compassionate and flexible when a guest was taken ill. And they stayed a long time afterward to ask questions. We’re looking forward to their next shift.

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.

Franciscan Value:

“We work to be good stewards of all the gifts given to us.”

I believe that I can speak for all of us when I say that each of us at one point or another have found ourselves in dire need of help while in various stages of our common self-destructive disease (addiction).

While at the end of our proverbial ropes and sick to the bone in body and spirit, it seemed like there was no hope left in the world.  The shame and self debasement that permeates addiction had become all too familiar to us.  However, somehow we were eventually led to a place where hands and voices reached out in welcome instead of expectation.

Once there we were given everything; a place to rest; a place to eat; a place to bathe; a place to feel safe at last.  We were given an opportunity to heal and recover where we could not only live but learn how to live again.  We learned about new thoughts and behaviors and we learned how to apply them.  We gained insights about ourselves and others.  We were introduced to an entirely new lifestyle based on ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.  Before us was the journey along the road of recovery, and we were getting better one day at a time.

There was very little asked of us in return.  Follow simple instructions, do some work, and don’t put any illicit mind altering substances into our bodies.  Everything was leading us to work a program of recovery and to become responsible members of society.

Along with substance abuse treatment and individual counseling in a long term social model setting, we were provided with access to a variety of services, from all aspects of social work to access to the free clinic (including mental health/therapy, vision and dental care).

I was amazed by what was made available to me and others like me.  I remember we as clients often asked ourselves, “Who is making all of this possible?  Who is providing all these services for us?  Who is giving us this amazing opportunity?  Who are these people?”

Today we are ‘these people’.

-Anonymous staff member of Father Alfred Center

Shaun Osburn dressed as a banana

The inaugural entry of this blog was posted by one Doug Huggala on October 7, 2007. Commemorating St. Anthony’s 57th anniversary, the post is a meditation on why we do the work we do.

We’re now in the midst of celebrating our 60th year of service. For the last three years, the blog has served as a forum for further explorations of what inspires and motivates our work in the Tenderloin, for spreading the word about news and events within the Foundation, for showcasing the contributions of our indispensable volunteers, for discussing the issues and policies that affect the lives of our guests, and for bringing the far-flung and highly eclectic St. Anthony’s community together online. Since its inception, this blog has been administered with care by the mysterious Mr. Huggala, whose real name is Shaun Osburn and whose last day as Senior Communications Associate after four and a half years of hard work is this Tuesday.

Shaun has been key to growing St. Anthony’s online presence, and evidence of his professionalism, commitment to worthy causes, and serious Photoshop chops can be found throughout this website and blog. We will certainly miss having Shaun as our webmaster, but not as much as we’ll miss having him as a co-worker, team member, and friend. Thank you, Shaun, and best of luck!

Last month we announced that Dr. Ana Valdes, Medical Director of St. Anthony’s Clinic, was a finalist for a Healthcare Hero Award. It’s high time to announce that she won.

The San Francisco Business Times launched the new awards to honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating new technology or educating the community about health issues.

Dr. Ana was recognized for increasing healthcare access to the underserved. Interestingly enough, one of her achievements that most interested her healthcare peers was synchronizing St. Anthony’s electronic medical records with the coding system at San Francisco General Hospital. This made St. Anthony’s the city’s first low-income clinic to do so. It sounds technical, but coordinating with SF General means that all the doctors who serve a low-income patient have the same information. A more complete history means better care and more possibility for progress.

The magazine also cited the brand new breast health program Dr. Ana has started in the Clinic, based on an outreach model she created for diabetes patients and later for asthma patients. All three programs help patients who have a hard time keeping up with their healthcare come into the Clinic, check on progress, and make a plan for managing disease. (more…)

St. Anthony Dining Room welcomes back Chef Jason, who has recently returned to take over as our Executive Chef. Jason is originally from Hawaii, and has 20 years of culinary experience. He’s the owner of Locavore, a restaurant focused on a fresh, locally-sourced menu. He hopes to bring a similar style of community-centered cooking to St. Anthony’s.

We asked him a few questions to get to know him a little better:

What’s your favorite dish to cook at home? Enchiladas.

What’s your guilty pleasure? Lots of ice cream.

What dish is surprisingly easy to make? Any kind of soup.

In your experience at St. Anthony’s, what’s the most popular menu item? Baked bone-in chicken!

Have there been any interesting moments while working here? It’s not really a moment, but my friends are always surprised at how many St. Anthony’s guests I know and say “Hello” to while walking around the city.

What’s different about cooking for St. Anthony’s guests? They’re not afraid to compliment–or give pointers to–the chef.

The Dining Room staff says your chocolate chip cookies are the best. Are they just buttering you up for more? Nope. They are the best!

Many thanks to Jason and our talented chefs, Kevin, Lien and Luis, for keeping us all coming back for seconds.

Dr. Ana Valdez is a finalist for a Healthcare Heroes Award. Sponsored by the San Francisco Business Times, the new awards honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating with new technology or educating the community about health issues. Recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony on July 27.

Dr. Ana does all of the above. She has made St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic into a medical home for those who need it most: the uninsured and underinsured, the working poor, new immigrants, and low-income families with children.

Her experience practicing Family Medicine in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala prepared her for St. Anthony’s. She knows how to provide high-quality care with limited resources . Her approach makes rigorous use of counseling, health education, and peer support. St. Anthony patients participate in their own care.

Dr. Ana has taken a “go get ‘em” approach to inviting diabetic patients who have trouble keeping current with their care to come in for a visit with a doctor. The Clinic organizes 4 Diabetes Days a year. They telephone all of our Diabetic patients who haven’t been in for a while to come in for a check-up, treatment, and counseling. On the same day, they invite the neighborhood to come in for screening and Q & A about Diabetes.

It started as an experiment and it worked so well that the Clinic started a series of Asthma Days to do the same thing with asthma patients: 4 Asthma Days a year, calls to the asthma patients they haven’t seen in a while, and an invitation to neighbors who might become new patients. Soon, thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, they’ll replicate the whole model for women’s breast health to prevent and identify breast cancer and other diseases early on.

Whatever happens on July 27, Dr. Ana is a healthcare hero to her colleagues, and to 3400 people who make the Clinic their medical home. We’re grateful to the San Francisco Business times for honoring Dr. Ana.

Check out the SF Business Times for a profile of Dr. Ana and the other finalists.

The following blog entry was written by Kendra Capece, Micah Fellow from St. Mary’s College who is interning with St. Anthony’s advocacy program this summer.

As St. Anthony’s Advocacy intern, today in the Dining Room I began outreach around a new issue, the Restaurant Meals Program. This service allows people who are homeless, disabled or seniors to use their food stamps (called CalFresh in California) in participating restaurants. (CalFresh benefits are stored on EBT cards, as pictured above.)  This is an incredibly necessary program because as one can imagine, being homeless, living in an single room occupancy hotel with no kitchen or not being physically able to cook presents serious hardships around fulfilling the basic need to eat. There has been talk at the federal level, however, that this program should be cut because of its lack of nutritional value, as many of the participating restaurants serve fast food.  (In my conversations with beneficiaries of the program, it was suggested that the government should be working to expand the program by getting more local, nutritious restaurants on board rather than cutting it. )  In response to the proposed elimination of the Restaurant Meals Program, a group of activists have started work on video testimony of people who use the program and don’t want to see it perish, in the hopes of educating the public and providing policymakers with a face behind the issue.

(more…)

The following are the reflections of Robin Polastri, shared as she stepped down from the Board of St. Anthony Foundation.

In the Footsteps of St. Francis

Fear and doubt are strange emotions. They can stop us in our tracks from taking an unfamiliar step; from heeding our heart’s desire; from venturing forth with courage and confidence; from falling with abandon into the reliable arms of the One who created All.

St. Francis, upon his conversion, must have experienced some pricklings of both fear and doubt as he turned away from the privileged, unexamined life he had known, eyes opened by the inanities and cruelties of war and by the graceless poverty and suffering God revealed to him.

And yet, Francis stood humbly before Sultan and Pope, filled with the Power that comes from the One, and the world turned as a result. Francis of The Leper, Francis of the Begging Bowl, Francis of the Re-Turn to the Rightness of Creation.

This is what has inspired me over the 22 years I have been associated with the St. Anthony Foundation. I arrived at St. Anthony’s Dining Room in September of ‘89 full of fear and doubt, and thus began the shifting of my world view. (more…)

Today, Dudley has a home, stable health, and the energy to do the activities that let him feel like himself. Two years ago he was in hospice care, and was not expected to live.

Dudley first arrived in San Francisco from Los Angeles in 1992, and found himself in the Tenderloin without a support network or stable footing. “My family’s all scattered,” he says.

It wasn’t long before he found his way to St. Anthony Dining Room for a meal, and later enrolled in what was then the Employment Program. But he had been dealt some crushing blows. Dudley had long struggled with alcoholism; he took his first drink at the age of 5. When he was also diagnosed as HIV positive, he became a regular client at the St. Anthony Social Work Center.

Dudley’s health continued to decline, until he was one day hospitalized with HIV/AIDS-related pneumonia. “The hardest part was my willingness to take meds,” Dudley says. “I wanted to check out. I believe that my mental state was so bad it affected me physically.” (more…)