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.

To kick off the season of giving, St. Anthony’s will launch our 24^th annual Curbside Donation Program.  Each year, St. Anthony’s relies on the generosity of people all over the Bay Area to donate clean, cared-for warm clothing, canned or dried bulk foods, and monetary donations.  Our donation valets, clad in bright red jackets, will gladly greet donors curbside at St. Anthony’s to receive donations.

This year, St. Anthony’s would like to send a special thanks to our friends at the Institute on Aging.  What began as a small gesture of generosity several years ago has grown exponentially through the tireless efforts of their staff and supporters.  We are blessed to have the IOA as members of the St. Anthony community and we wish them hope and happiness this holiday season.

Curbside donations begin tomorrow at 9 A.M.  Have a wonderful weekend!

I had the honor of joining Mayor Ed Lee at a press conference this morning where he introduced the Season of Giving.  St. Anthony’s, Glide and Self-Help for the Elderly were invited to speak at this event, where Mayor Lee encouraged everyone to “Step Up” and give.  These are difficult times and at St. Anthony’s we see increasing numbers of people seeking services from all of our programs. The dining room alone saw a 15% jump in the number of guests in October.  Despite the many challenges people of San Francisco are facing, I also see hope on a daily basis.

St. Anthony’s, Mayor Lee, and many other social service agencies know that San Francisco has long had a commitment to care for those who are struggling.  When you make a financial donation or you volunteer with your time, you instill hope in our guests. Next week, Mayor Lee will be volunteering at St. Anthony’s alongside Police Chief Greg Suhr, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, and members of the SFPD and SFFD to help prepare our Thanksgiving meal.  Now more than ever, we need to believe in one another and give the gift of hope.  The Season of Giving is a time to share and come together. It is a season that truly never ends especially in a city as generous and caring as San Francisco.

Shari Roeseler,
Executive Director

It’s City Budget advocacy time!

We still have a little ways to go to get to a fair budget: we are facing about $10 million in cuts to substance abuse treatment, mental health, homeless drop-in, senior services, violence prevention, support services in supportive housing, and employment services for homeless and formerly homeless people.

Although St. Anthony’s receives no government funding, we stand up with our clients and our community partners for a fair budget that helps to support low-income and homeless San Franciscans.  Without these vital services, our community will suffer: we want to work together with our community to create a city where everyone can achieve stability and have the chance to succeed.

Today at noon we’ll be at the sidewalk in front of the Polk Street City Hall steps for a budget bake sale to remind our City leaders that the budget needs to be just a little bit sweeter for poor folks, homeless people, and seniors.

Tomorrow we’ll be participating in the hearing before the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee. Tomorrow’s hearing is a chance for anyone from the public to provide comments on the proposed budget.  Public comment will go from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon and from 1:00 pm until the last person is heard.

If you want to make your voice heard, but can’t make it to the hearing, please take a moment and write an email to Supervisor Carmen Chu, Chair of the Budget Committee.

We’ll keep you updated with the latest updates on the City Budget as we continue to support vital services for seniors, homeless people, and other low-income San Franciscans.

Here at St. Anthony’s, our attempt to sweeten up the San Francisco budget continues! Last week, we reminded our staff about the Beliensen hearing with cookies. This week, we’re letting people know about two important budget events with cupcakes!

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!

What better way is there to remind people to take action for a fair City budget than with a cookie?  I can’t take credit for this great outreach idea — it came from Kendra, our wonderful advocacy intern from St. Mary’s College!

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?

Yesterday Chris Daly, Supervisor for District 6 of San Francisco which includes the Tenderloin area, proposed a ban on lying on the sidewalks. This legislation differs from the proposed sit/lie law sponsored by Chief of Police Gascon and Mayor Gavin Newsom in that it doesn’t prohibit lying down, but telling lies while on the sidewalks.

Although far-fetched and a bit bizarre, Daly’s proposal portrays the equal ridiculousness of the sit/lie law which gives police the power to fine or arrest people for innocent behavior. In addition, sit/lie would criminalize certain groups including the poor and homeless.

Last Saturday, individuals and groups gathered peacefully all across the city of San Francisco to participate in Sidewalks are for People, a decentralized, city-wide event that encourages people to utilize their city sidewalks as places of community-building. Over 2 dozen events, including poetry workshops, bbqs and tea parties, occurred in all areas of the city and demonstrated how sit/lie would eliminate sidewalks as community space.

A sit/lie hearing will take place at City Hall on Monday, May 10th at 10:00am. Stand up for your right to sit down and oppose sit/lie.

Today I stood on the sidewalk at lunch (I was tempted actually to sit/lie down but I suppose that is another issue entirely) and allowed myself to admire the resiliency of those members of the Tenderloin community who offer St. Anthony’s the privilege of serving them. At its peak, our Dining Room lunch line extended down Golden Gate Avenue past Leavenworth Street. Those of you who have been here before can likely appreciate the magnitude of that. The number of people, hungry, waiting patiently for their first (if not only) meal of the day, was inconceivable.

At that moment, I was instantly reminded of a conversation I had with a friend earlier this week. She had a visitor in town last weekend and decided to show her one of San Francisco’s great brunch spots. They waited 1 ½ hours to get into the restaurant, all the while chatting with strangers in line and enjoying the sunshine. Not entirely, unlike the experience of many of our guests on most days of the month, right?

In some respects it is exactly the same and demonstrates the point that poor people are not the only ones who wait for food. However, in MANY ways, it is entirely different. My friend waited in line because she wanted to; because she chose to, because she heard that the food was great and worth the wait. She could have chosen any one of a thousand other breakfast options that day. Perhaps had it not been for a rare, cloudless sky that day, she would have. She also knew that upon entering the restaurant, she would be provided a menu with countless items from which to choose and bottomless cups of coffee. These are all luxuries that many of our guests do not share: the inherent luxury of choice. Our guests stand in line for infinite amounts of time precisely because of a lack of choice.

Today, St. Anthony’s proved to be the only option for nearly 2000 hungry folks.

San Francisco may be the next city to enforce sit/lie laws prohibiting people from inhabiting public sidewalk space. Mayer Gavin Newsom will be introducing his two new proposals to the Board of Supervisors today. One is modeled after sit/lie laws in the Pacific Northwest, affecting only commercial areas while the other is the first of its kind: a citywide decree prohibiting sitting or lying on any sidewalks. Anywhere.

In my hometown of Portland, OR a similar law was implemented a couple of years ago — and since then has been ruled unconstitutional. The law resulted in several cases of profiling against the homeless and poor. Often, tickets issued were contested and thrown out in court. I’ll be interested to see how it pans out here in San Fransisco…it’s hard to say a law won’t be profiling when it’s meant to target only a specific group of people.

Read more about the proposed laws here.