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.

My job today was to find people who use the Restaurant Meals Program who are willing to commit to being videoed next week. I knew this was going to require a different approach than my previous Dining Room outreach, which had consisted of the much lighter task of passing out flyers for budget hearings and demonstrations. I was sensitive, therefore, to the fact that having a stranger carrying a notepad come ask if you used food stamps wasn’t exactly the most comfortable situation for either of us.

I found myself quickly engaged in deep conversations with people about how they came to use food stamps, why the restaurant program is important to them and their fears if the program ceased to exist. I was also surprised to discover the high number of people that were active food stamp receivers but also frequent Dining Room guests, highlighting the importance of both services for the community.

I heard from a young woman who loves using the Restaurant Meals Program because it allows her and her boyfriend to go for a date night once in a while (even if the date is at Carl’s Junior) because it gives her the privacy, service and luxury of escape that reminds her she’s just like everybody else.

Then there was an older African American man that had the most compelling  eyes and carefully chosen words who asked me if the program is being proposed to be cut because the restaurants don’t want homeless people like him taking up room from other guests.

There also was an elderly Caucasian woman who told me how she gets hungry at night waiting in line for a shelter bed, but using her EBT card at McDonalds allows her to get a hot meal after she’s checked in for a bed.

The stories went on and on and with each one my heart clenched up a little bit more. I didn’t even take a break for three hours straight because for the first time since working at St. Anthony’s, I finally felt like I was understanding poverty in a different way and finding a whole new level of meaning in the work I was doing. I don’t know how else to explain it, except that it hit me like a ton of bricks. Hearing from others the stories of people who one day were big executives and the next day were homeless is one thing, but it’s something very different to hear it first hand, only me and that person. The  equality of all people became much more real to me today; we are all on our own paths in life, experiencing suffering and worthy of the same rights, justices and simple pleasures afforded to us by our common humanity.

It’s moments like these that are why I’ve so enjoyed my time spent interning here at St. Anthony’s this summer. Advocacy is something I would like to make a career of and my time here has certainly afforded me some great lessons.  Advocacy isn’t just about policy-making, demonstrating, educating or community organizing, it’s about the people with their different faces, different stories and different things that make them smile. They are the ones that make you chant a little louder in that protest or provide testimony despite your fear of public speaking and fulfill you with the passion to keep up the good fight, no matter how many times people might say it’s not worth it.

They will be writing about their experience right here on our blog.

Follow-them on their journey of service and solidarity over the next two weeks.

The yummy cupcakes, made by our St. Mary’s College intern, Kendra, serve to sweeten up a budget proposal that tastes very bitter to homeless and low-income San Franciscans. There are about $10 million worth of cuts in the proposed budget that will be harmful to poor and homeless San Franciscans, including cuts to homeless drop-in services in the Tenderloin, mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, employment programs for homeless and formerly homeless people, senior services, and supportive services in supportive housing.

Join us for a budget demonstration and bake sale on the sidewalk in front of the Polk Street steps of City Hall on Thursday June 23 at 12:00 pm.  The bake sale will include drumming, singing, and educating our community about proposed cuts that will affect homeless and low-income San Franciscans.  Then, on Friday June 24, join us for public comment on the City budget before the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee.  Public Comment will be held in the board chambers (room 250 at City Hall) from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon and from 1:00 pm until the last person has been heard.

If you aren’t available to testify in person, please consider sending an email to the members of the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee to tell them to continue funding for mental health, substance abuse treatment, supportive housing, employment programs for homeless people, and homeless drop-in centers.   Go to the Board of Supervisors website to find the supervisor who represents you and send him or her an email. If you don’t live in San Francisco, send a message to Budget Committee Chair Carmen Chu. (We know that many of our volunteers and supporters live outside the City of San Francisco but still care deeply about health and social services in the City. Please explain this to Supervisor Chu when you write to her.)

If you’re not feeling inspired to make your voice heard yet, perhaps a picture of a delicious cupcake will do the trick!

On Tuesday June 14 at 3:00 pm, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will be holding a hearing on proposed cuts to public health programs.  Cuts have been proposed to substance abuse treatment and mental health services as well as to support services in supportive housing.  Drop-in center services for homeless people in the Tenderloin and for 6th Street SRO residents provided by our neighbors at Central City Hospitality House are also proposed to be cut.

Although St. Anthony Foundation receives no government funding, we are concerned about these proposed cuts and the negative effects that they will have on our community and on the clients of our dining room, social work center, substance abuse treatment program, free clothing program, free medical clinic, tech lab, and senior residence.

In the words of our Executive Director Shari Roeseler, whose take on budget season was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Open Forum, “we must come together to find solutions that truly will increase our common good.”

We can not truly increase the common good unless all members of our community are heard.  That’s why we urge our guests, staff, volunteers, supporters, and YOU to contact the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and tell them what you think.   Go to the Board of Supervisors website to find the supervisor who represents you and send him or her an email.  If you don’t live in San Francisco, send a message to Budget Committee Chair Carmen Chu.  (We know that many of our volunteers and supporters live outside the City of San Francisco but still care deeply about health and social services in the City.  Please explain this to Supervisor Chu when you write to her.)

Special thanks to our Advocacy Intern, Kendra (pictured below) for doing outreach to let St. Anthony’s Staff know about the budget proposals and how to get involved.   She’ll be doing outreach to guests in our dining room line on Monday.  Won’t you join us in making your voice heard?

The work that I do here at St. Anthony’s has given me such a profound appreciation for the things that I have in my life.  I find it fascinating how St.Anthony’s is able to meet so many needs of individuals and families in the Tenderloin. The amount of gratitude that the clients have for all the services that St.Anthony’s provides for the community is so eye opening. I have witnessed more dignity and respect  here at St. Anthony’s in a month, than I have in my 17 years on earth. I know I will carry this experience with me in the future.

There is something about serving that can make a bad day great.There are many days where  I can recall  not wanting to get up for work, commute to San Francisco,and walk in the (ice cold) summer air, but as soon as someone greets me with a smile or hello, I am more than ready  to serve and learn. Interning at the  Tenderloin Tech Lab and being able to slow down and work one on one with a client is so rewarding. A computer, something so simple and natural to me, is not as common to everyone. I am able to use a natural skill to help others and that feeling can not be expressed in words. Often, I find myself learning as I teach, the clients are so brilliant and I love hearing their stories because they have so much wisdom and strength within them. Once, I was helping an elderly man who was sitting on two seat cushions, as I stood next to him he reached and grabbed one to place in the chair beside him. “We can not start until the teacher is seated and comfortable!”, it was flattering, being that I am only 17 years old and my elder called me his teacher, not to mention the seat cushion was very comfortable.

This week’s entry was written by Derek, a junior at the University of Notre Dame and founding member of the Double Down sandwich fan club:

My jaw dropped when a gentleman whom I was helping draft a resume in the Tenderloin Tech lab told me where he got his high school diploma from. It took a second to register as I punched in the name of his school under the Education section of the word document that we were working on. “NO WAY”, I turned my chair to face him. “You’re from Ossining?” The man cracked a wide grin, “Born and raised!” I was completely blown away that here I was, in San Francisco, a new intern at St. Anthony’s who had never been to California before, sitting with a client in the third floor tech lab who just happened to used to live two streets down from the house that I grew up in. We laughed and gave each other a high five like we had just won the world-series (now both of us, being New Yorkers and fans of the Yankees, are no strangers to winning world-series.)

After that moment, it was as if we had known each other all our lives. We were all smiles as we swapped our experiences and memories about home, traded stories about how we got out to San Francisco, and mused about the small world that we live in. For a few minutes that day, my friend’s arduous job search became less stressful, and my nerves about being a stranger in a new town and a new workplace were gone. We were each a little bit of home for the other and we gave something to each other and traded encouragement and strength, not with specific words, but just because we were two guys from “O-town” who had found each other over two thousand five hundred miles away.

Finding that simple, natural connection with someone else and that feeling of solidarity with a complete stranger is the treasure of service. That gift is abundant at St. Anthony’s in interactions with clients and with the staff. Having experienced it already, I could not be more excited for my next six weeks here.

On Saturday June 19^th, the staff from the Tenderloin Tech Lab paired up with 8 volunteers and 9 Reliatech Computer Technicians to host another successful and fun Tech Fair. On the day of Tenderloin Tech Fair, which is hosted by the St. Anthony Foundation four times a year, guests of the foundation can come in and work with professionals on questions or problems related to computer technology. On Saturday, over a hundred clients attended San Francisco’s largest free tech help event. Over 25 individuals brought in their personal computers to be diagnosed and repaired by the talented professionals, while others were able to participate in advanced computer skills courses, have personal one-on-one tutoring for specific questions, and access a wealth of resources. Clients were able to receive help from tech gurus in everything from word processing to Facebook to advanced web design. Over the years, the Tech Fair has become a hot item in the Tenderloin; word has spread quickly among clients about the free event, as the majority of clients indicated that they heard about the Tech Fair through word of mouth or from staff at the St. Anthony Dining Room. With such incredible resources available and the help of great people– all for free!- the high client turnout on Saturday makes it clear that the tech fair is the place to be.

As I walked into St. Anthony’s on my first full day of work as a new summer intern, I eagerly awaited what my day would hold. After entering the Tenderloin Tech Lab on the third floor, I learned I would be helping teach the Basic Computer Skills class, a 12-class program for people with little or no computer experience. I quickly flashed back to my middle school computer classes, remembering countless hours of typing, learning the home keys on a keyboard, my first web design using HTML, and the years of fidgeting with my laptop, discovering all of the eccentricities of Windows XP.

I received my first laptop in sixth grade as the first class of a now school-wide laptop program. As any self-proclaimed computer nerd would do, I quickly familiarized myself with the new hardware and learned the new programs that came pre-installed in our machines. Computing had become second nature to me and I soon found myself being called upon to fix my parents’ or brothers’ computers when they weren’t working properly. I had mastered the basics without even recognizing them as skills that needed mastery.

Flash forward to the Basic Computer Skills class and the students are learning the differences between files and folders, how to use a web browser, and how to open their first email accounts. Things that had been so simple for me—so basic—were difficult skills that required practice and effort before they could be mastered. As we worked on creating and saving new Word documents, one student inquired, “but why are we doing this? I’ve got a pen and pencil right here!” As I grappled to come up with an answer that didn’t include a philosophical discussion detailing society’s expectancy for everyone to be computer savvy, I realized that technology—that which is supposed to make our lives easier—doesn’t always carry through on its promises.

We celebrate our iPhones because we they allow us to do things that were never before possible.  But are they making our lives easier? When I watch my friends frantically pounding out emails on their BlackBerries over Sunday brunch, I can’t help but think that their lives were never as complicated or stressful as they are now that they are masters of, and slaves to, technology. It seems as if our idolized devices have become the rulers of the world, and we their abiding customers.

Don’t get me wrong; I love being a member of Generation Google. Moreover, I’m absolutely thrilled to spend my next eight weeks helping people learn how to use technology to make their lives easier. Clients are learning to create and edit resumes, search for jobs on the internet, and get in touch with distant friends and relatives. But as I celebrate each small victory with the students—using their first flash drive, sending their first email, making their first Facebook profile, to name a few—I’m reminded that technology is here to serve us, not the other way around.

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.