There is a French saying that nostalgia is like an old woman who throws out fine linens yet clings to rags.  As I get ready to retire two weeks from today, I find myself clinging to all sorts of memories from these last 11 years, working here at St. Anthony’s.  Like that old woman, I’m having trouble distinguishing between linen and rags.  Here are a couple of items that, for me anyway, are too fine to forget.

One cold winter day (or was it a cold summer day?), I was walking down the ramp into St. Anthony’s Dining Room.  I could hear that someone in the lobby was at the piano and playing that great gospel song “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”.  (Dr. Thomas Dorsey, the godfather of gospel music, wrote it after his wife died.  Mahalia Jackson sang it at Martin Luther King’s funeral.)  As I neared the lobby I could hear that there were also people singing the hymn.  Sure enough.  A small crowd had circled the piano and were swaying like a church choir.  I was curious to see who was leading them in song and was stunned to see that it was an old friend.  Dionne is a survivor.  Due to serious mental health issues, and resulting behaviors, she has been “86′d” from just about every social service agency on either side of the Bay.  On her good days Dionne might be your ideal, iconic grandmother.  On the bad ones she could be a terror!  On every day, regardless of the weather, she wore multiple coats and carried all her worldly belongings in two overstuffed black plastic garbage bags, shuffling along with great effort, weighted down by age, illness and increasing isolation.  But there she was in the lobby at St. Anthony’s, making music that must have made the angels weep.  And for just a moment I thought I caught a glimpse of that Kingdom of God that Jesus preached about, and of that Beloved Community that Doctor King dreamed about.

My first Christmas at St. Anthony’s was preceded by a week of the coldest weather in recorded San Francisco history.  There was snow on top of all the hills and driving rains each night that were like monsoons.  A couple notches lower on the thermometer and we would have had a disaster.  But if you were homeless, you already had one!  The weather was so bad that various agencies were opening up space during the days and nights to welcome those without shelter.  As I snuggled in my comfortable bed in North Beach each night and tried to get to sleep, I was haunted by the realization that thousands of my fellow San Franciscans were somehow enduring this – outside!!  One morning that week, just after the rains had stopped, I got off the bus at Market and Golden Gate and walked towards St. Anthony’s.  As I got to our corner I noticed three of our guests on the curb near the Dining Room entrance.  They were all Viet Nam War vets and had been homeless for years.  (Talk about survivors!)  As I got close to them I blurted out, “Oh guys, last night must have been awful!”  And one of them, without a moment’s hesitation, said, as though to calm me, “Nah, Fitz. It washed the piss smells off the sidewalk!”  Think about that for a moment.  Read between the lines.  If there were any 3 people in the whole city who might have had a right to be bitter and resentful that morning it was surely those guys.  And that wasn’t where their minds and hearts were at all.  They’d actually found something positive to celebrate!  Later that day, and on countless days since, it has occurred to me that those dear, wounded warriors were precisely the sort of folks Jesus of Nazareth must have been talking about when he began the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “Blessed are the Poor.”

Wednesday marked my 3 year anniversary of moving to the west coast. Exactly three years ago, I hugged my family goodbye at the Philadelphia airport and hopped on a plane, bound for San Jose. Other than a short stint Down Under while studying abroad, I had never spent more than a few weeks away from my hometown. Now I was on my way to California for my orientation to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps before moving to Phoenix, Arizona where I was to spend my year in service to the poor. As is the case with most life-altering experiences, I had no idea how the course of my life would be changed through my one short year as a volunteer. (more…)

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!

I have spent a great deal of time this week riding the #5 Muni, a bus that so conveniently shuttles me from St. Anthony Foundation to the University of San Francisco, just several miles down the road. There is no shortage of differences between these vastly diverse communities, one being a social services non-profit serving the needs of San Francisco’s poorest, and the other being a major university serving the educational needs of their young, vibrant student population. My job is to help others recognize the similarities and bridge the gap between these two Golden Gate Avenue communities. Here at St. Anthony’s, I work in the Justice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy department. One of my primary responsibilities is to coordinate our service-learning program. For the past few years, I have helped to facilitate student access to the community in a way that is both meaningful and educational for students, but also provides value-added service to the organization and those we serve. Students are given the opportunity to practice skills in a real-life setting that they have acquired in the classroom, and while doing so, learn from the community they come to serve. Such a simple, yet transformative idea, that goes further than just transfer of knowledge and gets to the heart of discovering self-worth and empowerment for both the students and the guests/clients with whom they interact.

This being the second week of May, USF’s spring semester is quickly coming to a close and I am given the opportunity to participate in many of the students’ final presentations about their service-learning experiences (hence the frequent trips back and forth on the #5.) It is this point in the semester that my typically ongoing questions of “What are students learning? What are they gaining from this experience?!” are often answered. They often speak of a particular client with whom they worked in the tech lab or share something they learned from a participant in the Father Alfred Center. They realize that they have left their mark on St. Anthony’s and the Tenderloin Community, and hopefully many will look back on this experience as one that in some small way, has changed their lives. It is my hope that they walk away thinking, “We’re not so different after all.”

Come join me and the St. Anthony staff in thanking this semester’s service-learning students and interns at the Semester Celebration event on Thursday, May 14th from 3-5pm at 150 Golden Gate. Find out for yourself about student experiences at St. Anthony’s and the valuable education that can be achieved through experiential service-learning!!

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

Every day that I come to work, say my hellos coming up from BART, wave hi to Dining Room staff, to Fr. Alfred Center guests working in the Dining Room as part of their recovery program. Make the left at Golden Gate and go up through the Social Work Center, the Clinic and the Employment Program and Tech Lab. (If I wanted to get real technical I’d tell you that I then walk past JEVA, our fantastically organized volunteer and advocacy program, but I digress.)

Every day I come to work I see these programs and the close-knit community of support that they offer to people most in need. But my friends and family don’t know first hand about the work that is done here, so I try and find ways to get them connected. The most powerful way to connect is to volunteer. And, our amazing group of volunteers regular and one-timers can attest to that. The connection is immediate, the sense of community is infallible. But, there are so many other ways to see what is going on down here at the foundation.

Maybe social networking is not the first thing you turn to when trying to search out community causes, events and organizations. Perhaps when you think of charity or “soup kitchens” (but please don’t call us a soup kitchen, those Dining Room chefs whip up a mean lunch every day of the year, not to be served with a spoon!) you don’t think of giving a “poke” or a “tweet“, but perhaps we could change your mind. St. Anthony Foundation is reaching out and connecting with folks who can’t come down here every day or every month and offering a bit of our community to the online community. On ourFacebook page, this blog and even on YouTube we’ve got a lot of exciting events, drives and video to help you stay connected and to help you share your St. Anthony experience with friends and family who have yet to learn about us.

I invite you to visit our Facebook page, take a peek at the YouTube videos and tell some friends. At 58-years old St. Anthony’s might not be a spring chicken, but we are learning new tricks and are excited to be able to share our daily work with you.

Ed. Note: This was written by Elysa, an 8th Grade student at a local Bay Area school. Elysa’s assignment was to interview someone from a non-profit to show the human side of volunteerism. Her subject for this interview was St. Anthony’s Justice Education and Volunteer and Advocacy (JEVA) staffer Megan Pippet.

Every day, St. Anthony Foundation serves 2,600 meals. Every month, they provide another 2,600 individuals and families with clothing and housewares. Every year, they provide 12,000 patients with free medical care. They provide countless others with resources to stabilize and improve their lives. But these numbers have next to no importance for St. Anthony; according to Megan Pippet, Education Outreach Coordinator, St. Anthony Foundation is “more focused on making people feel comfortable and at home.”

Megan’s career in service began when she spent a year at a homeless shelter in Phoenix, working for no money as part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. She had originally planned to pursue a career in business, but her experiences at the shelter influenced her to continue to help the homeless and poor after graduating college. Her desire to work at a nonprofit organization led her to San Francisco; “I found St. Anthony and it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Here at St. Anthony, Megan is in charge of coordinating the internship and service learning programs. She loves “working with high school and college students and helping to educate about the issues of hunger and poverty.” The best part of her job is “seeing when these issues ‘click’ in their minds.” Megan also claims to have “the best co‐workers, volunteers, guests, and clients.”

Megan’s job would be nothing without the people she works to help, “people who feel trapped and unwelcome and who society doesn’t understand.” Through years of working to better the lives of these people, Megan claims that “they make you think about what the most important things in life are…You may think you’re better because you went to college or have more money, but some of them are much more happy even though they have much less. They humble you.” Even though Megan’s job doesn’t involve directly interacting with the beneficiaries of St. Anthony Foundation, she takes to heart everything and everyone she works to help; “some people just like to feel good about themselves after helping, but it goes deeper than that. Like seeing smiles and knowing that you were there to help.”

The choice Megan made to pursue a career in service has paid off with her work at St. Anthony Foundation. Megan enjoys her job and is proud of what she does and what St. Anthony works to achieve. “We offer somewhere safe and comfortable—a family.”

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.

Recently, C.W. Nevius posed the age-old ‘chicken or the egg’ question in his twice weekly column.  As so many people do, he wonders,  why is it that there is such a concentration of homeless services in the Tenderloin?

“The question is,” Nevius asks, “Do the homeless and low-income people flock to the Tenderloin because there are so many services, or have the charitable groups been drawn to the neighborhood because so many residents need help?”

As with any questions regarding social services, the answer depends on the person’s beliefs of who “deserves” services.   At St. Anthony Foundation, we firmly believe in each person’s right to eat, to have affordable health care, warm clothing, to have shelter and to have the opportunities to build employment skills, and find community to overcome addiction.

As service providers city-wide brace for impact of the budget crisis, it is becoming clearer that privately funded non-profits will fiscally weather the storm, but more and more of the clients who sought help from city services will be turning to us for help.

What tragically some people see as the “easy work” of feeding the hungry, mentioned in Nevius’ article, what they are missing is that the children and young adults who partake in service-learning will have a deeper understanding of the issues of homelessness and poverty.  That direct experiential learning will more greatly impact youth than any fifth period lecture on the economy, and they will carry those stories to the family members, and friends, continuing the dialogue.

It is through volunteering, through service-learning and education and that greater issues of homelessness and poverty are understood and approached with insight.  Not through columns written outside looking in, questioning whether or not we might scare the tourists.

Rabbi Alan Lew, of Congregation Beth Sholom, died suddenly on Monday.

Alan also was a longtime member of the Steering Committee at Religious Witness With Homeless People, and an eloquent, passionate advocate for San Franacisco’s most vulnerable and needy citizens.

Rabbi Lew represented the Jewish community at St. Anthony’s educational forum a few years back, doing the presentation on Social Justice in the Jewish Tradition.

His family’s loss is shared by the community of faith and conscience in the City of St. Francis.