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!
Spring is in the air, and this week’s healthy, hearty menus will give the guests of St. Anthony Dining Room the nutritious energy they need to spring forward! This week’s specialty of Cambodia Beef Curry gives a respectful nod to the fact that most of the City’s Cambodian poplulation lives in the Tenderloin (that’s what we have experienced here, and what has been researched by Urban Solutions Tenderloin Neighborhood Profile).
May 11 Hot Turkey Sandwiches: served with baked beans
May 12 Chicken with Cream Sauce: Prepared with mushrooms and sour cream
May 13 Cambodian Beef Curry: Served with rice and vegetables
May 14 Lasagne: Layers of noodles, tomato sauce, and meat
May 15 Chicken Cacciatore: Tomatoes and mushrooms
May 16 Senegalese Beef Stew: Served with fresh vegetables
May 17 Turkey Bolognese
Please check back for weekly installments of On The Menu!
Ohayo, San Francisco! Konichiwa from Tokyo, Japan! The picture to the left is of me at the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo.
Like many spiritual communities found in large U.S. cities, the Sensoji Temple has a long history of caring for the less fortunate. The Sensoji Welfare institution was opened in 1958 and for over 50 years its many programs have evolved to include free legal aid, medical care and educational classes for those out of work.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
It’s nice to know that even though Tokyo, a city as rich as San Francisco, has communities of faith looking after its poor and homeless residents.
It would seem that this spirit of compassion is universal.
Most of us know that guests at St. Anthony Foundation have amazing stories. Not everyone realizes that some of our donors do, too. A woman who escaped from China during the early years of Communism has left St. Anthony’s $100,000.
Mary Westwood Hyndman was born in Shanghai and went to Catholic schools there, where she learned fluent English. She married in 1945. Four years later, the Communist Party took control of the city. She and her family endured 8 years of government surveillance and intermittent questioning. Finally, they decided to leave.
The family made the 18-day voyage to San Francisco in 1957, and never went back. The only time Mary left the U.S. again was a trip to London to visit the grave of her father, who had served in Shanghai under British rule. The refugee experience left its mark. Her family says she chose St. Anthony Foundation for her bequest partly because she was touched by our no-questions-asked service to immigrant families.
St. Anthony’s unites vastly different people in an unlikely community. Mary’s bequest will help us serve immigrant families from Mexico, Central America, and Southeast Asia. It will feed, clothe, and counsel people with mental and addictive illness who come from Mongolia, Korea, and California. It will pay for supportive housing for elderly women from China, Russia, the Philippines, and the Fillmore. All of these people are one community in St. Anthony Foundation; all will share in Mary Hyndman’s bequest.