Each month we gather in the dining room at Fr. Alfred Center to celebrate and honor the latest graduates of our 12 month, residential drug and alcohol recovery program.  At our November graduation Al, who will soon be graduating himself, stood up and addressed Joe, one of the graduates, saying: “When I came into this program, I was broke. My pockets were empty. I had lost everything. I didn’t even have a decent pair of shoes. But when you saw me, you took off the shoes you were wearing and gave them to me. Man, I will never forget that. I love you.”  Joe’s gift inspired deep gratitude. Love was born out of his compassionate and generous gesture and, through this, fellowship, such a powerful force in our recovery program, was strengthened.

The first Thanksgiving was not only a celebration of an abundant harvest, but also of fellowship between the English settlers and the local Native Americans, who, when they first heard shots fired, thought that perhaps a war had started. Concerned, their leader, Massasoit, visited the English settlement and learned that the settlers were preparing for a harvest feast. Massasoit then sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the celebration.  For three days the English settlers and Native men, women and children shared roasted deer and other meats, shellfish and corn together. They sang and danced and feasted!

We live in a culture that often seems to promote the idea that what we receive enriches us, but the true gifts are gratitude and fellowship.  These gifts deepen our faith and trust that there is enough for all if we share, and that an enduring fellowship is born of this sacred exchange. Both giver and receiver are enriched as they become gifts for one another.

Thanksgiving Day, the men of Fr. Alfred Center  helped to serve thousands of meals to our guests. A year ago some of them were in the Dining Room as guests themselves. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere festive  and  once again we  affirmed  that together we create a fellowship of care, concern and love for one another.

Written by Gail Priestley, the Director of Programs at St. Anthony’s

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to watch one of college football’s great spectacles, a full day’s fun with a group of your friends in some of the best seats in the house??? Do you wish you could feel good about purchasing tickets for a family outing this holiday season??

Well, if you answered yes, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl would love to make it happen for you.

This December, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl will be auctioning off multiple Bowl experience packages, and the proceeds will benefit local hunger relief partners – including St. Anthony’s. Packages include once in a life time experiences that you can’t buy anywhere else! You’ll have a chance to be on the field for pre-game warm ups, attend a pre-game VIP Party with food and drink included, or even remove the tee from the field after kickoff. This year’s game will be held on December 29th at 1:00pm at AT&T Park and will feature the Midshipmen from Navy and a team from the Pac-12. Auctions will go live on December 5th and details can be found here.

For the third consecutive year, St. Anthony’s will be one of the leading nonprofits featured in the 2012 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. This year’s teams will be announced on December 3rd, at the conclusion of the greatest regular season in all of sports.   In conjunction with Macy’s and KGO-TV, the Bowl will donate the cost of one meal to St. Anthony’s, Glide, and the Food Bank for every ticket sold to the Game.

The Bowl has donated over 200,000 meals to the Bay Area’s hungry. Over 60,000 of those went to St. Anthony’s.

For the third straight year, players from one of the competing teams will visit St. Anthony’s and serve meals to our guests - this year on Christmas Day.

The Bowl will continue to raise awareness with radio ads, recognition on the website and social media outlets, and PA & Scoreboard messages at the game.

The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is the only one of 35 bowl games that is directly associated with a social cause, so . . . . .

Don’t miss the chance to spike one in the end zone for St. Anthony’s and help us score a touchdown for 1 in 5 of the hungry people here in San Francisco.

Emily Wondolleck is a Media and Communications Intern

It has been a little over a month since Matt Cain pitched the first perfect game in Giants franchise history.  The perfect game is possibly the most dramatic, intense and rare feat in all of sports.  What makes it so special?  Why is it so captivating?  Well, simply put: everyone has to be perfect.  There’s no second chance, no allowance for a mistake.  The pitcher, and his entire team, must do everything right.  No hits.  No walks.  No errors.  It’s nearly impossible.  And this is why we are fascinated.  Accomplishing what is nearly impossible makes us feel super human.  It makes us hopeful.  It reminds us we are equipped with talent and skill and connectivity that can conquer fear and uncertainty and failure.  What’s more is that the perfect game starts just as every other ordinary game – with a first pitch.  The 42,000 plus fans at the ballpark that Tuesday were probably planning to see a good game.  With a pitcher like Cain, they might have been anticipating a great game.  But it’s safe to say that no one expected to witness perfection on that night.

A month later, almost every day since, I have thought about that perfect game.  I find myself asking the same questions: What does perfection mean at St. Anthony’s?  How do we pitch a perfect game?  Would perfection be the Dining Room serving 3,000 meals with no health emergencies and no incidents?  Or would perfect be shutting the Dining Room down for a day because no one in San Francisco was hungry or without food?  Is perfect Father Alfred Center graduating a complete class of men every month or is perfection the disappearance of dealers on our corners and the temptation of liquor in our stores?

Maybe perfection is none of these.  Maybe perfection is walking with a diabetic patient and sharing your favorite healthy recipe with her.  Maybe perfection is an almost new pair of shoes that can be worn to a job interview.  Maybe perfection is being able to offer a veggie tray to a guest that doesn’t eat meat.  Maybe perfection is a smile and eye contact that shows respect and warmth.  Perfection is found most often in the little things.

We start every day with one pitch.  Each day seemingly as ordinary as the one before it.  But then something magical happens.  And I feel like I witness perfection every day.  Our staff.  Our volunteers.  Our guests.  We all back each other up.  We are connected in a way that is dramatic and rare.  The difference between baseball’s perfect game and ours is that we are full of second chances.  And when mistakes are made, our team does more than catch a deep fly ball or turn a crafty double play.  We make it better by putting the ball back in the hands of our guests.  We empower them and they inspire us to continue playing until the last out.

We know we are not superhuman.  But working together to do the little things well and the big things even better makes us hopeful.  We are reminded that not only is our community equipped with talent and skill and connectivity to conquer fear, uncertainty and failure – we are blessed with hearts full of passion.

Offense scores runs.  Defense wins games.  Passion drives perfection.  Matt Cain pitched a passionate 9 innings of perfection and his team passionately backed him up, giving The City joy overflowing.  With our hearts full of passion, St. Anthony’s aims to give the same to our guests.  Is it easy to be perfect?  No way!  Can we start each day with one pitch and give it a try?  Yes we Cain!

Play ball!

Celina Sutton is the Group Volunteer and Internship Program Coordinator and a huge San Franicsco sports fan.

Last Friday, a group of 100 from  St. Anthony’s  enjoyed a night out at the ballpark with the San Francisco Giants. We watched as our Executive Director and other representatives from our staff and board joined with Cy Young Award winner and three-time all-star Barry Zito for a special home plate ceremony before the game.  The purpose of the ceremony was to publicize St. Anthony Foundation’s campaign to build the new St. Anthony’s Dining Room.

The sight of a large group from St. Anthony’s at a Giants game, clad in our trademark teal t-shirts with our Giants black and orange is quite a sight to behold.  For Victor, a churro vendor who was working our section in the bleachers, we were a welcome reminder of an organization that helped him through a tough time in his life.  As soon as Victor saw us, he said, “Hey St. Anthony’s!  I love St. Anthony’s!  You guys saved my life!”

Victor had come to the drop-in hours at our Social Work Center, where he was able to get information about other services that could help him get back on his feet. He also ate in our Dining Room and received clothing from our Free Clothing Program.  It was great to see that Victor was back on his feet and happy, with a wonderful job at AT&T park, home of the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants!

Every time we saw Victor that night, we gave him a big round of applause and he gave us an “I love you guys”.

Our interaction with Victor reminded me of what San Francisco Giants President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Baer said at our capital campaign kickoff: “the most important intersection in San Francisco is Golden Gate and Jones”.  For Victor, I think that Golden Gate and Jones may just tie with 3rd and King as two of the most important intersections in town.  It’s really true: Together we are Giant!

The simple word “um” (pronounced “oom”) sparked a friendship in the St. Anthony Dining Room that bridged an ancient tradition with the hope of a new generation.  Dining Room guest Mut had struggled to find a safe place to land in the Tenderloin.  His limited grasp of English, along with the hustle and bustle of the streets in the Tenderloin, left him alone and panicky about finding his way.  That is until the day he met Rath, a member of our Client Safety Services team.   Rath recognized his signals of distress and approached Mut with one simple syllable um.

Um is a way of communicating respect to an elder in Cambodian, directly translated as Uncle.  Rath feels a special sense of pride when it comes to this friendship and said, “Mut feels safe knowing I am around.  He feels comfort here and now shares a meal with us daily.  Before this, he was in search of food everywhere.”  There are twenty-two languages spoken in the Tenderloin, a long-standing launch pad for recent immigrants to San Francisco.  St. Anthony’s Dining Room remains one of the places many immigrants turn to as they begin a new life.

Like so many people who have come before, and countless people who will come after, the St. Anthony Dining Room serves up more than food.  It is a place where friendships are made and worlds come together.

You have heard of our boundless hope here at St. Anthony’s. This hope is real—so real that we’ve moved our original Dining Room to an interim location, and we’re preparing to tear down the old building to make way for a new one. It’s all about hope. Many generous donors have already stepped up and supported this $22 million effort, yet we still have about $4.5 million to raise.

We are now turning to our regular donors and the general public to finish off this campaign. We need you to join us now and be part of the miracle–one that that began with Fr. Alfred Boeddeker in 1950. Today, we face the challenge of keeping that miracle alive by building a new St. Anthony’s for the next 60 years. Construction starts this summer, so there’s no putting things off. If you support our work with a regular gift to St. Anthony’s, please consider making an additional gift for this once-in-a-lifetime project.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA On October 3rd, just one day shy of St. Anthony’s 58th anniversary of serving San Francisco’s poor, St. Anthony’s will opened its LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) certified Social Services Center. The new center will enable the historic San Francisco non-profit to serve more people in its Free Medical Clinic, Employment Program and Technology Lab, and Social Work Center, as well as being home to St. Anthony’s Auxiliary Dining Room.

DEDICATION EVENT

The short and sweet building dedication took place between 12 noon and 1:30 pm at 150 Golden Gate in San Francisco, CA, with hors d’oeuvres and beverages provided by sustainably minded food purveyors such as Green’s, Perbacco, Serpentine, Farmer Brown, Alive!, and Numi Tea. Building tours took place after a brief dedication ceremony with local dignitaries and St. Anthony’s program participants serving as key speakers.

BUILDING GREEN

Designed by HKIT architectural firm, the new service center features open and airy waiting rooms with excellent air quality, natural light, regionally harvested and manufactured wood doors, and warm colored, low-VOC painted walls. By committing to the use of low emitting materials, environmentally responsible equipment, and conscientious management of construction waste, St. Anthony’s is leading the wave of high-level environmental responsibility in the non-profit and social services sector.

PROJECT HISTORY

St. Anthony’s former social services building, located at 121 Golden Gate, was housed in a non-reinforced masonry building that was once home to a parking garage. When retrofitting proved to be too costly and rebuilding impossible without a discontinuation of crucial drop-in services during the building’s renovation, St. Anthony’s looked for other options.

The availability of 150 Golden Gate, across the street, gave St. Anthony’s an opportunity to continue its services while creating a healthier, greener, and structurally sound place to serve guests and clients. St. Anthony’s embarked on an unprecedented Capital Campaign to fund the building, which brought a new category of donors from all over the United States. Many of them have, in the process, learned about the services provided by St. Anthony’s, and become donors to the existing programs.

ST. ANTHONY’S AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

The conscious effort towards greater sustainability is an intrinsic part of the system and culture of St. Anthony Foundation. As a Franciscan organization, the tandem roles of environmental responsibility and social responsibility are fostered in a tradition of social justice. In the Tenderloin, where environmental illnesses such as asthma and diabetes are rampant, St. Anthony’s Green social services building is a discernible investment in a healthier environment for San Francisco’s poor.

St. Anthony’s efforts of sustainability are supported from many different avenues. In addition to a Green Service Center, the in-house “green team” constantly assesses internal practices of sustainability, bringing impactful changes in the way the organization recycles, composts, and reuses. Clothing is recycled and redistributed at the Clothing and Housewares Program; Computers are refurbished in the Employment Program Technology Lab; and thousands of pounds of food each week are reclaimed, served, and finally composted in the St. Anthony Dining Room, which has served almost 35 million meals to date.

The primary goal of the Dining Room is to provide sustenance for our hungry guests in and environment of dignity and respect.  In doing this we are able to provide a welcoming community, friendly ears to listen, and referrals to other services in St. Anthony Foundation’s network of care.  Our ability to serve every guest in the Dining Room is made greater by truly understanding them and their specific needs.

More than one third of our guests rely on the meals served in the Dining Room as their only source of food each day; many must decide between paying for rent or even for medicine before budgeting for food. We understand that people with food insecurities need to reach satiety in their main meal of the day, to accomplish that a meal with 20% fat is advised.

Beef and other meats are critical to our guests.  The concentrated protein helps prevent the cravings that lead guests to spend what little money they may have on fast food or convenience store items high in saturated and trans fats. All of these foods can cause further harm to our guests’ health when eaten on a regular basis, leading to obesity and related diseases, like diabetes.

The homeless and low-income population we serve also need a supplemental diet that focuses on prevention and other special needs such as wound healing, vision impairment and bone health. To ensure that the Dining Room is providing meals that best meet these needs, St. Anthony’s invited a Registered Dietitian to conduct a nutritional assessment of our food. The results indicated that the Dining Room’s menu provides excellent sources of macro and micronutrients, reflecting home cooked meals rather than processed foods. Meals also contain higher nutritional value, not only when compared to the alternatives found in our neighborhood, such as fast food and inexpensive convenience store snacks, but also when compared to other food service agencies.

The study showed Vitamins E, A and K at “good” levels. To raise that rating to “excellent” the Dining Room immediately doubled the amount of spinach and carrots cooked in meals, and has also added more meals with tuna to increase Omega-3 intake. Meals are now being cooked with vegetable oil rather than margarine, which immediately decreases trans fats 15%, with a long term goal of completely eliminating trans fats by 2010.