Hunger Action Day 2011 was a great success.  This year, St. Anthony’s brought a busload of 50 participants to Hunger Action Day, the highest number of participants that we’ve ever had!  St. Anthony’s guests, volunteers and staff joined community partners from St. Boniface, Community Housing Partnership, and  Dolores Street Community Services to educate our legislators about hunger in our communities.

Here at St. Anthony’s, as we have seen an unprecedented growth in demand for our food programs.  We respond to this growing need not only by serving more food, but also by working together with our community for social justice.  On Hunger Action Day, we asked our legislators to make fair budgeting decisions, to reform California’s under-performing CalFresh program, to support local growers who want to donate produce to California food banks, and to support community reentry by removing the ban on CalFresh from people with drug related convictions.

Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes (pictured above, addressing Hunger Action Day participants) authored two of our Hunger Action Day bills: AB 6, which simplifies and improves the CalFresh program and AB 152, which encourages California growers to donate fresh produce to food banks to distribute to people in need.

In the afternoon, we met in small groups with representatives from the offices of our four San Francisco legislators: Assemblymembers Tom Ammiano and Fiona Ma and Senators Mark Leno and Leland Yee.  The legislative visits are always my favorite part of Hunger Action Day because people who are directly experiencing hunger get a chance to talk to policy makers about their experiences and ideas about how the state can improve anti-hunger programs.

Check out our Hunger Action Day photo album on our Facebook Page and stay tuned to our blog for more information about how to support our Hunger Action Day bills.

On Tuesday May 17, St. Anthony’s will join anti-hunger advocates from around California to talk to our state lawmakers on Hunger Action Day!   This year’s theme is: “FACE HUNGER – California’s Real Deficit!”

At St. Anthony’s we’ve seen significant increases in the amount of food we’re serving in our free dining room: our numbers are up 10% compared to last year.  As the numbers of people in need of free meals at St. Anthony’s dining room increases, we realize that speaking out about hunger is more important than ever.  We will be holding a training for our guests, volunteers, and community members to prepare for Hunger Action Day by learning about anti-hunger issues in California.  The training will be on Wednesday May 11, 2011 at 2:30 pm at 150 Golden Gate Ave.  If you’re interested in attending, please contact Celina Sutton at 415-592-2728 or csutton@stanthonysf.org

Hunger Action Day is an opportunity for regular Californians to talk to policy makers about hunger issues affecting their communities.  This year, we’ll be discussing:

If you’re interested in joining us in Sacramento on May 17, please contact Celina Sutton at 415-592-2728 or csutton@stanthonysf.org to reserve a seat on our bus.  Thanks to support from California Hunger Action Coalition, transportation is provided free for all participants.

Although the “Great Recession” technically ended in 2009, hunger and food insecurity continue to be a problem for many Americans.   For the past 60 years, the trends we’ve seen at St. Anthony’s Dining Room have mirrored nationwide struggles with hunger.  

When we look at the number of meals we’ve served between February 15 - March 1 of 2011, we see a 15% increase over the in the number of meals we served over the same period one year ago.   What we see at St. Anthony’s isn’t a phenomenon specific to San Francisco or to the Tenderloin: hunger continues to be a problem in communities across the nation.   Recent  reports from the Food Research and Action Center and Feeding America show that large numbers of households across the country are having trouble affording enough food. 

An article in the March 28, 2011 San Francisco Chronicle explains more about the specific issues that are related to hunger in California.  One of the factors related to hunger in our state is the burdensome and unnecessary barriers to the federal Food Stamp program (named “Cal Fresh” in California) that are  in place in California.  Only 50% of the people who are eligible for Cal Fresh actually participate in the program, and burdensome administrative requirements like mandatory finger imaging and quarterly reporting requirements contribute to California’s low participation rate.

St. Anthony’s is working with anti-hunger groups from across the state to cut through the red tape and improve California’s Cal Fresh participation rate, and you can join us!   We’ll be bringing a busload of advocates to Sacramento for Hunger Action Day on Tuesday May 17, 2011.  We’ll talk to our legislators about hunger issues in our communities and legislation that can help reduce hunger statewide.  If you’re interested in participating, please email Colleen at crivecca@stanthonysf.org

By Florence, St. Anthony Foundation intern with the Social Work Center and the Justice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy program.

Last Wednesday was a day to remember. Partially because I had to get up at 5:30 am during my first week of summer vacation but mostly because I had the privilege of fighting for a meaningful cause alongside some of the most passionate and inspiring individuals I had ever met. It was the much-anticipated Hunger Action Day in Sacramento.

During the hearing held in the Capitol Building, testimonies were heard from youths, single-mothers, former addicts, homeless individuals, and other voices that were united on that day in a fight for a basic necessity and human right: food. In fact, two of the members from our very own Father Alfred Center delivered very powerful and insightful testimonies drawn from their personal experiences with addiction and recovery. I think a lot of us, and many of the legislators as well, were humbled by these stories, from those who have experienced first-hand, or are in imminent risk of, hunger. The testimonies were personal and touching, but most importantly, they were strong and demanding.

So were our messages during meetings with individual legislators. But it was during that time I began questioning about our effectiveness at conveying those very messages—ones about advocating for the extension of food stamp privileges to individuals with drug-related felonies and the expansion of food stamp/EBT acceptance in farmer’s markets, among others. I don’t know if it was from my frustration with the knowledge about the failure of those bills passing in the state legislature year after year or the seeming nonchalance of legislators about our presence and the issues at hand, but I felt that the gulf between the bureaucracy and the constituency is too enormous for our voices to fill.

But even more puzzling was how I went back home feeling hopeful and certain that we left an impression that day. Was it the pitch of desperation I heard in people’s testimonies? The hint of compassion in an otherwise cold bureaucracy? Or was it everyone’s exhausted but smiling faces on the bus ride back? The more I reflect the more I’m certain it was the spirit of everyone who was there that made the day so worthwhile. Just as Katie wrote in her January reflection on the “Homelessness Ends with a Home” march, I realize how much the opportunity to voice their opinions mean to so many people, and how much of an honor it had been for me to be in the same fight with them.

We made a lot of noise that day. I am sure that we were heard.

Tomorrow is the big day, St. Anthony Foundation is gathering with anti-hunger advocates from across the state and heading up to Sacramento.  Each May St. Anthony’s Advocacy Coordinator, Colleen, rallies the troops, bringing staff, guests and volunteers to speak with policymakers about hunger legislation that effects low-income and homeless people.

To prepare Colleen holds educational seminars regarding the upcoming legislation and cuts that are being proposed.  She breaks down the budget and legislative process and helps St. Anthony guests form their testimony to share with those they will be meeting with in Sacramento. This experience empowers guests and staff,  bridging the gap between people affected by policy and those that make it.

St. Anthony Foundation receives no government funding and that gives us a special  fiscally-untangled voice when speaking out about cuts to services.  Sine we do not stand to receive or lose funding we are able to speak directly and clearly to the issues.

Stay tuned to the blog to see photos and recaps of the action!

It is with generous support from MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and California Hunger Action Coalition that St. Anthony Foundation is able to participate in Hunger Action Day.

The first Wednesday of each month is a special day at St. Anthony’s : it is the day that our drug and alcohol rehab program, the Father Alfred Center, celebrates graduation. After spending 12 months of hard work to get and stay clean, graduation allows us to recognize the accomplishments of our Fr. Alfred Center participants while acknowledging that their recovery will continue after they leave.

Each of the St. Anthony Foundation departments who work with the Father Alfred Center participants makes a brief presentation as a part of the graduation ceremony. This month, it was my turn to speak for my department, the Justice Education, Volunteer, and Advocacy program, also known as JEVA.

I used my presentation as an opportunity to acknowledge how important the Father Alfred Center participants are to JEVA. Father Alfred Center participants speak with each of our student volunteer groups, sharing their personal stories about addiction and recovery. By sharing their stories with our volunteers, our Father Alfred Center participants are educators. Their stories are often painful; however, one person’s story of addiction and recovery, painful as it may be, is a great gift to our volunteers.

Hearing a personal story gives our student volunteers a chance to understand some of the social, economic, emotional, and spiritual factors that shape the experience of the disease of addiction. The stories of any of our St. Anthony Foundation guests, though very personal, underscore our common humanity; that is why they are so powerful at breaking stereotypes and at helping people understand a complex social problem.

This month’s graduate did more than just educate our volunteers. He also participated in Hunger Action Day in Sacramento this past spring. In fact, a group of folks from Father Alfred Center joined St. Anthony Foundation staff, volunteers, guests, and other community members for this statewide lobby day aimed at ending hunger.  I reminded our graduate that not only did he use his story to educate our student volunteers, he also educated our elected officials and policy makers in Sacramento.  Father Alfred Center participants described how hunger issues affect people recovering from addiction and called on our lawmakers to support legislation that would allow people in recovery to be able to access anti-hunger programs like Food Stamps.  By being storytellers, our Father Alfred Center participants were teachers and advocates.

Everyone’s story is important because everyone’s life is important.  Sharing our stories with others helps us transcend the sadness, pain and suffering that we have experienced.  But sharing our stories is more than just a cathartic experience:  sharing our stories can help us move toward a more just society!

It might have been the worst day EVER to go to Sacramento and advocate for fairness and justice in the state budget! On Wednesday (May 20th) a bus full of staff and volunteers and guests went from St. Anthony’s to the state capitol to do just that. It was “Hunger Action Day”, an annual plea to the Governor and legislators to notice that certain upcoming bills and budget plans will either help or hurt California’s most vulnerable citizens.

The headlines on Wednesday were all about what had happened the day before. In a special election, two thirds of those voting basically told those officials that they’d done a bad job of trying to “fix” the budget and sent them back to the drawing board. Within hours the Governor was making threatening noises about totally eliminating social assistance programs! (Why? It wasn’t the widows and orphans and homeless who’d failed to do their job and create a fair, just and comprehensive budget.)

Bet even before that special election, the mood in Sacramento was something less than generous. Replying to a request for a meeting on Hunger Action Day, a budget aide to the Governor had emailed us to say that even though they’d meet us, there was nothing to discuss or negotiate. And he closed with these remarkable words: “WHEN POCKETS ARE EMPTY, HEARTS MUST HARDEN.”

Really? REALLY?

For those of who have been privileged to be at table with San Francisco’s poorest citizens here at St. Anthony’s Dining Room, we know just the opposite to be the truth. The poor are notoriously more generous than the rich. It’s why they are “God’s favorite people”.

When times are tough, hearts soften and burst open so that they can hold ever more tender mercies. The glorious history of the human spirit is not the story of hardened hearts, but rather the legacy of warm, open, loving and generous hearts – especially those that ‘rose to the occasion’ when times were toughest.

Think of Frank Capra’s legendary movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. On the one hand there’s Mr. Potter, the selfish, mean-spirited, bitter and lonely, heard-hearted banker. But opposite him is George Bailey, the soft-hearted Savings & Loan operator whose goodness and generosity almost do him in. Saved from the brink of suicide by an angelic messenger, he lives to realize that he is the “richest man in town” because of all the needy friends he’s helped.

For your reflection, here are some other hard-hearted thoughts and quotes.

“And when Pharaoh saw …, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants” (Exodus 9:34).

“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” (Bob Hope)

“Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.” (Golda Meir)

“A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.” (Mother Teresa)

“I know I have a heart because I can feel it breaking.” (The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz)

“Cold, hard heart,
Cold, cruel heart
What’s it gonna take
To break your cold, hard heart ? (Jon Bon Jovi)

Hard hearted Hannah, the vamp from Savannah,
Pouring water on a drowning man.” (Ella Fitzgerald)

On the day last summer when Tim Russert died, his friend Bruce Springsteen remembered words the NBC newsman had told him years before: “The best exercise for the human heart is bending down to help someone else up.”

We can only hope that during these tough times, perhaps over this holiday weekend, our friends in Sacramento will get some really good heart exercise!

Tell your story and influence lawmakers to support legislation that addresses hunger

The training for our Hunger Action Day in Sacramento will be held at St. Anthony Foundation on Wednesday May 13th, from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

This training is designed to prepare you for Hunger Action Day in Sacramento, where you can talk with legislators about how to end hunger in California! Because we’ve had some great legislative successes last year, our Hunger Action Day training items will be a little different this year, so please come to the training if you’re planning on joining us for Hunger Action Day.

Hunger Action Day will be on Wednesday May 20th, and we will once again provide transportation to Sacramento and breakfast/lunch for all participants (thanks to financial support from California Hunger Action Coalition and Mazon Foundation.)

To sign up, call Colleen Rivecca at 415-592-2729 or email crivecca@stanthonysf.org

Each May, St. Anthony Foundation supporters, staff, guests, and volunteers join anti-hunger advocates from across California for Hunger Action Day in Sacramento. Low-income advocates, food program volunteers, nutritionists, food bank supporters and others concerned about the 3.1 million Californians experiencing hunger travel by bus, car and airplane once each year to participate in this important event. If you’d like to participate in Hunger Action Day, please contact Colleen Rivecca at 415-592-2729 or crivecca@stanthonysf.org.