Christmas Curbside Donation Drive Starts Next Weekend:

Saturday, December 17th – Saturday, December 24th!

St. Anthony’s 24^th Annual Christmas Curbside Donation Drive begins on Saturday, December 17^th. 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.

Your donation of NEW SOCKS, clean and ready-to-wear clothing, canned and dried foods are all much needed and appreciated! And if you’ve been working on hand knit scarves as holiday gifts to our guests, bring them in!

WHEN: December 17th-24th, 2011 – Weekends from 9-3 & Weekdays from 8-6

WHERE: St. Anthony Foundation - 105 Golden Gate @ Jones

NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothing
We need all kinds of clothing for men, women, and children – our most critical needs are for the following items:

Socks, Shoes
Underwear
Winter coats
Jackets
Hats

Monetary Donations

St. Anthony’s is happy to accept cash or checks for donation during Curbside and is prepared to issue receipts onsite for tax purposes.

ITEMS WE CANNOT ACCEPT:

Empty clothes hangers
Knick knacks
Used toys
Children’s car seats
Furniture
Medical equipment
Dirty, stained or torn items
Books and magazines
Exercise/sports equipment
Housewares
Computers, electronics

If you have any questions about donations, please call us at (415) 241-2600.

And in case you’d like to volunteer and join us for the holidays, call the St. Anthony Holiday Line at 415-592-2829. We look forward to seeing you!

In giving, we receive:  help others keep warm this winter by dropping off gently-worn coats or visiting our website to donate today.

St. Anthony’s 24th Curbside Holiday Donation Drive kicks off on Saturday, November 19th. 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.

Your donation of turkeys, clean and gently worn clothing, canned and dried foods are all much needed and appreciated!

WHEN:
November 19th-24th AND December 17th-24th

• Weekdays from 8-6
• Weekends from 9-3

WHERE:
St. Anthony Foundation
105 Golden Gate @ Jones

NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothing
We need all kinds of clothing for men, women, and children – our most critical needs are for the following items:

Socks, Shoes
Underwear
Winter coats
Jackets
Hats

Monetary Donations
St. Anthony’s is happy to accept cash or checks for donation during Curbside and is prepared to issue receipts onsite for tax purposes.

Other
We also need these items:

Shopping bags – with handles
Blankets, comforters, sleeping bags
Luggage, bags, backpacks
Toiletries – new only, please
Towels, washcloths
Stuffed animals – good condition only
Children’s toys – new only, please
Strollers – in good condition
Canes – not crutches, walkers, wheelchairs

Items We Cannot Accept
Empty clothes hangers
Knick knacks
Used toys
Children’s car seats
Furniture
Medical equipment
Dirty, stained or torn items
Books and magazines
Exercise/sports equipment
Housewares
Computers, electronics

If you have any questions about donations, please call us at (415) 241-2600.

And in case you’d like to volunteer and join us for the holidays, call the St. Anthony Holiday Line at 415-592-2829. We look forward to seeing you this holiday season!

In early November, the basement of the Free Clothing Program was empty, down to the bare cement floors. Our donors heard our cries and brought us donations to help us make it through. Then over the holidays their continued generosity, coat drives, clothing drives, and curbside dropoffs filled us to overflowing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

St. Anthony’s has been sharing the Holiday Spirit now for 60 years! Talk about keeping “the home fires burning”! Not with logs, but with the generosity of warm human hearts in one of the toughest times of the year to feel hopeful if you’re on the other side of prosperity. This past Monday evening, those home fires were brightly lit for our annual Children’s Holiday Party. What: Children in the Tenderloin? Oh yes–@ 3500 of them. Many families in the Tenderloin are clients of St. Anthony’s, and many of their children attended, supported by enthusiastic volunteers—many of them college students, and a wonderful Mom, whose high school daughter was studying for finals…so, she sent her Mom to help the kids decorate ginger cookies!

Games, goodies, and more gave good cheer and then some! The sound level alone registered off the joy meter: human hearts aglow. Healing Holidays and a hope filled New Year to one and all!

In less than a week, St. Anthony’s will be celebrating the annual Holiday of Thanksgiving along with much of the Country. The St. Anthony community of guests, volunteers, staff, and Foundation supporters will join in the traditional meal in the Dining Room, a family to be sure, as other families are doing so far and wide. But what a family here at 45 Jones Street! And this family gathers 365 days a year in the Dining Room …

…  Any one of those days is a day of giving thanks, and yesterday was no exception. Just before we began to serve the meal, we gathered together to remember the life of a wonderful man—a volunteer and St. Anthony supporter in so many ways over the years. Gene had passed away recently, but not without leaving a lasting impression of joy and generosity on all of us in the St. Anthony’s family. We shared memories amongst tears and laughter, at the same time another member of our inclusive family was pushing a cart of food across the Dining Room expanse as quietly as he could: one of our beloved neighbors who shares the kitchen when preparing celebration meals for a nearby mosque. Yesterday, the tasty items he brought over to prepare were for Eid Al-Adha.

And my heart swelled with joy—even in the middle of sadness—sadness for the loss of a dear member of our “family”, sadness for the growing number of people living in poverty, and sadness for so many divisions of mistrust in our world. The joy of being in community, of being in family with everyone who walks through the Dining Room doors, sets the table each day with the most important ingredient of every meal for each and every person—that essential ingredient is belonging.

Rex Golobic Donates Tens of Thousands of Turkeys to St. Anthony Dining Room This Decade

Turkey Bowl at Serra Bowl has become a favorite holiday tradition.

Every year just two days prior to Thanksgiving, pro bowlers, celebrities and the community come out to bowl at Serra Bowl in Daly City to roll strikes for turkeys. The money raised goes to buy turkeys to benefit the St. Anthony Dining Room as well as the North Peninsula Food Pantry & Dining Center of Daly City.

This is its tenth year it has been held by Rex Golobic and his family — the owners of Serra Bowl. Rex created this event to help feed the hungry over the holidays. It has been a huge success and over 1,000 turkeys are contributed each year to help those in need over the holiday season.

The friars of St. Anthony always come out to join in the fun and bowl strikes for turkeys. They are a big hit and receive enormous media coverage by the popular Bay Area sports anchors.

But Turkey Bowl is not the only involvement Rex Golobic and his family has had in assisting the St. Anthony Foundation. For 35 years the Golobic family ran Downtown Bowl and was involved in various neighborhood community volunteer projects to clean up the streets and make the Tenderloin a safer place.

From all of us at St. Anthony’s, we want to thank Rex Golobic and his family for their much appreciated generosity and leadership.

And what a holiday donation drive it was. The Ramallah Club kicked off the giving spree on the first day with 96 turkeys.  Eighteen young people from The Joint Youth Ministry came all the way from San Jose with 26 bags of clothing which some of them spent their day sorting and bagging while others unloaded donations from people driving up to our doors with food and clothing for our guests.  We received a record 1163 turkies over the week before Thanksgiving and hundreds of deliveries of clothing and toiletries over Christmas week.

Our friends heard our cry for socks. More than 3,000 pairs, in every size, color, and pattern, with plenty of plain but very warm crew socks and work socks to fill Christmas gift bags for all the guests who came to the Dining Room. Gymboree donated hats, chocolate, bags, and labels that said “Happy Holidays” and put the bags together. The Palace Hotel came through with 2800 mineral washes for the bags and cartons of other useful gifts for St. Anthony residential programs. The Hilton and other hotels gave shampoo and lotion. And Jane and John Doe just kept giving and giving and giving.

Anything that didn’t go into a gift bag will be given to our guests for months to come, as the rains continue and the cold grows sharper. This is how the 5,000 get fed. And clothed and healed and living better, safer lives: when people of good will are not too afraid for themselves to open their hands and share what they can.

At St. Anthony Dining Room we are a buzz preparing a Christmas feast for 4,000 of our friends, family and community here in the Tenderloin.

And we could not have done it with out you. Your response to our call for food and socks means that every guest who comes on Christmas will get a delicious filling meal and a gift bag with socks and other necessities. The cans of food, peanut butter and tuna are filling our pantry shelves which will help fill the cupboards of seniors and families in need.

Your support makes a difference this holiday season, and in the year to come. When you make a gift to St. Anthony’s you make a change in someone’s life. Whether it provides food that day, groceries for that month, doctor visit for an uninsured child, or life-changing recovery and job training, you can know that your support is a gift that meets real needs.

Thank you for reaching together with St. Anthony Foundation to extend this season of hope to all.

What’s cooking this week at St. Anthony Dining Room!

Monday December 21 – Pasta Primavera

Pasta and vegetables served in a delicious white sauce

Tuesday December 27 – Gumbo Ya Ya

A Cajun dish made with chicken, pork, sausages and rice.

Wednesday December 23 – Chicken Mole

Delicious chunks of chicken simmered in a Oaxacan style sauce of chiles and spices.

Thursday, December 24 – Beef Bourguignon

Diced beef simmered with vegetables in a sauce made with red wine. (No Alcohol)

Friday December 25 -  Honey Glazed Ham

A special Christmas meal served with mashed potatoes, vegetables and dessert.

Saturday December 26 – Lentils With Turkey

Lentils simmered with Turkey and spinach

Sunday December 27 – Tuna Casserole

An American classic made with tuna, noodles and mushrooms topped with breadcrumbs then baked.

Check back for weekly installments of On The Menu!