Turkey Bowl

Two days prior to Thanksgiving, pro bowlers, sports celebrities and the community gathered together at Serra Bowl in Daly City to volunteer their time and skills as they bowled strikes for turkeys at the eleventh annual Turkey Bowl. This event raises money to buy turkeys to benefit the St. Anthony Dining Room as well as the North Peninsula Food Pantry & Dining Center of Daly City. Rex Golobic and his family – the owners of Serra Bowl – created this event to help feed the hungry over the holidays.  It has been successful since its very beginning and over 1,000 turkeys are contributed every year to help those in need.

Nancy Pelosi visits the Dining Room

On the day before Thanksgiving, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her grandchildren graciously volunteered in our Dining Room. She has been donating her time to St. Anthony’s for many years and we are very thankful for her support. After serving, Pelosi reflected that “On Thanksgiving, we come together with family and friends to honor a spirit of gratitude: offering thanks for the blessings in our lives; giving back to the less fortunate in our communities.” Congresswoman Pelosi and her family captured the spirit of giving that we at St. Anthony’s cherish so much.

Turkey Carve

Later that day, recently re-elected Mayor Edwin Lee, Police Chief Greg Suhr, and Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White joined St. Anthony Chefs to put the final touches on our 61^st Thanksgiving Day meal.  The Mayor, Chiefs, and uniformed members of the San Francisco Police and Fire Departments carved the last of 4,800 pounds of turkey and added the final garnish of whipped cream to our 4,000 pumpkin pies.

Thanksgiving Day

On Thanksgiving Day and all other days, St. Anthony’s opens its doors to any and all San Franciscans.  Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, joined over a hundred volunteers and thousands of guests to serve and enjoy a delicious meal prepared for 4,000.  As St. Anthony’s prepares to serve a growing number of needy residents, Executive Director Shari Roeseler commented, “These are difficult times.  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 challenges people of San Francisco are facing, I also see hope on a daily basis as donors, volunteers, and guests come together to celebrate the holiday season.” The Dining Room was full of hope and holiday cheer on Thanksgiving Day, as guests ate all the food off their plates, had second helpings of pumpkin pie, took more food home for leftovers, and walked out of St. Anthony’s with full stomachs and smiling faces.

With 4,800 pounds of turkey, 1,250 pounds of mashed potatoes, 1,250 pounds of yams, 1,000 pounds of stuffing, 4,000 individual pumpkin pies and more, this may have been one of the biggest thanksgiving meals you’ve ever seen!

Thanksgiving is a special day at St. Anthony’s, as so many hands and hearts come together to prepare and share a meal and our reasons to be thankful. This year, members of many different faith tradtions stepped in to help prepare the 4,000 Thanksgiving Day meals, and hundreds of volunteers are stepping in to serve the meal. Photgrapher Craig Lee stopped by to take some pictures as well. We give thanks!

In less than a week, St. Anthony’s will be celebrating the annual Holiday of Thanksgiving along with much of the Country. The St. Anthony community of guests, volunteers, staff, and Foundation supporters will join in the traditional meal in the Dining Room, a family to be sure, as other families are doing so far and wide. But what a family here at 45 Jones Street! And this family gathers 365 days a year in the Dining Room …

…  Any one of those days is a day of giving thanks, and yesterday was no exception. Just before we began to serve the meal, we gathered together to remember the life of a wonderful man—a volunteer and St. Anthony supporter in so many ways over the years. Gene had passed away recently, but not without leaving a lasting impression of joy and generosity on all of us in the St. Anthony’s family. We shared memories amongst tears and laughter, at the same time another member of our inclusive family was pushing a cart of food across the Dining Room expanse as quietly as he could: one of our beloved neighbors who shares the kitchen when preparing celebration meals for a nearby mosque. Yesterday, the tasty items he brought over to prepare were for Eid Al-Adha.

And my heart swelled with joy—even in the middle of sadness—sadness for the loss of a dear member of our “family”, sadness for the growing number of people living in poverty, and sadness for so many divisions of mistrust in our world. The joy of being in community, of being in family with everyone who walks through the Dining Room doors, sets the table each day with the most important ingredient of every meal for each and every person—that essential ingredient is belonging.

Rex Golobic Donates Tens of Thousands of Turkeys to St. Anthony Dining Room This Decade

Turkey Bowl at Serra Bowl has become a favorite holiday tradition.

Every year just two days prior to Thanksgiving, pro bowlers, celebrities and the community come out to bowl at Serra Bowl in Daly City to roll strikes for turkeys. The money raised goes to buy turkeys to benefit the St. Anthony Dining Room as well as the North Peninsula Food Pantry & Dining Center of Daly City.

This is its tenth year it has been held by Rex Golobic and his family — the owners of Serra Bowl. Rex created this event to help feed the hungry over the holidays. It has been a huge success and over 1,000 turkeys are contributed each year to help those in need over the holiday season.

The friars of St. Anthony always come out to join in the fun and bowl strikes for turkeys. They are a big hit and receive enormous media coverage by the popular Bay Area sports anchors.

But Turkey Bowl is not the only involvement Rex Golobic and his family has had in assisting the St. Anthony Foundation. For 35 years the Golobic family ran Downtown Bowl and was involved in various neighborhood community volunteer projects to clean up the streets and make the Tenderloin a safer place.

From all of us at St. Anthony’s, we want to thank Rex Golobic and his family for their much appreciated generosity and leadership.

I received this the other day from one of our Thanksgiving volunteers:

“As a single U.C. retiree, without family, in planning how I would spend my Thanksgiving today, I had three options:

(1) I could hole up in my apartment, watch television all day, eating left-overs, and feeling very, very sorry for myself; or,

(2) I could have a 7-course dinner at inflated prices in some hotel
dining room, turned off by such an over- abundance of food with so much hunger in the Bay Area; or,

(3) I could take Bart over to San Francisco and head for St. Anthony’s Dining Room, helping serve hundreds of homeless, jobless people, who are so thankful for this generous holiday dinner served in a warm, caring and happy atmosphere, where they’re made to feel like a welcome guest.

I’ve been a volunteer at St. Anthony’s Dining Room for several years and feel richly rewarded for my slight contribution to their wonderful program.”

We give thanks for our amazing volunteers!

Craig Newmark just visited us at the St. Anthony Dining Room. What a gracious fellow. We talked about the digital divide and how to get more people on line so they can get jobs.  As Craig left the Dining Room, someone extented their hand to him an said “Are you Craig from Craigslist? I got my last job from Craigslist. Actually, I got my last 5 or 6 jobs from Craigslist.”  We are trying to make that happen at the Tenderloin Tech Lab with Network Ministries, and Craig is obviously making that happen on his end.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA The sound of revving engines will be a call to start carving turkeys on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 when the Hells Angels come to St. Anthony Dining Room to help out for one of St. Anthony’s biggest days of the year. And on Thanksgiving Thursday the historic nonprofit will serve more than 3,500 turkey dinners to the poor and homeless; even Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is stopping by to lend a hand.

“With the economy in the state it has been the last 2 years, we anticipate many more people will be spending Thanksgiving at St. Anthony’s,” noted St. Anthony’s Interim Executive Director Linda Pasquinucci. “We are very thankful that more volunteers and donors are coming through the doors as well, because we have never needed them more.”

In conjunction, St. Anthony’s 22nd annual curbside donation drive is kicking off on Saturday November 21st at 9am, where clean, cared-for warm clothing, canned or dried bulk foods, and monetary donations can be dropped off to St. Anthony’s “donation valets”. As more and more people turn to the 59-year old non-profit for basic necessities as a result of the current economic crisis, the support from everyday citizens is needed.

For 59 years St. Anthony Foundation has provided free, life sustaining support for the poor and homeless. St. Anthony Foundation’s programs help heal individuals and families by providing a gateway to solutions to poverty, including a Dining Room which serves 2,600 meals every day, an Employment Program/ Technology Lab, Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program, and a Free Medical Clinic. St. Anthony Foundation does not accept any federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely funded by private donations.

What’s cooking this week at St. Anthony Dining Room!

Monday November 23 - Fettucini Alfredo

With Chicken baked in cream sauce.

Tuesday November 24 - Meditarranean Orzo

Chicken, caper, and lemon

Wednesday November 25 – Pasta Marinara

Tangy vegetarian tomato sauce tossed with pasta and topped with Parmesan cheese.

Thursday, November 26 – Thanksgiving Day Turkey Dinner

Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and pumpking pie.

Friday November 27 – Pork Chili

With pinto beans simmered in chili sauce.

Saturday November 28 – Turkey a la King

Simmered in cream sauce and served over noodles.

Sunday November 29 – Chicken Cacciatore

Slow cooked with tomato mushroom and basil.

Check back for weekly installments of On The Menu!

The savory aromas gathering for days; the friends and relatives visiting, the Macy’s Parade and Football on TV … the contentedly full belly and turkey enhanced deep sleep; and the leftovers! Ah the leftovers, stuffing and turkey soup, potatoes, pies, and cranberry sauce … I’ve been among the fortunate, for many years of my lifetime, to expect and enjoy this description of late November.

Unfortunately, there have always been those who are not able to count on such celebrations & fare. And as we know, that number–not only for Holiday meals but for any meal, is dramatically on the rise. Just this past Tues, Nov. 17th, the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer featured a story “More Americans Facing Hunger.” The US Dept of Agriculture has issued new findings of a 14.6% increase in the number of Americans having trouble putting enough food on the table between 2007 and 2008: that’s 50 million people, one in every 7 American households!

Sadly, hunger is nothing new. St. Anthony Dining Room has been serving meals for almost 60 years, but the increase in numbers of those being served is a very strong and visible call for renewed efforts to address the shortfall in resources and in access to them. The wonderful benefactors of St. Anthony Foundation–those donating their time and their treasure, continue to “come to the table” to serve and to offer their utmost and to share in the exchange of giving and receiving.

I remember a time not so long ago in my own life, when Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that America experienced not so much material poverty, as it did spiritual. I don’t think we could find many folks today who know that material poverty has “gained ground on the American landscape”. There’s no question that we long to see and that we work together, not only to address this change, but to reverse it.

Over this past decade especially, my experience of Thanksgiving has been quite different than those earlier years, and perhaps it has become in some sense more in keeping with “the legend” at least, of the original Thanksgiving: the celebrating, the sharing, that insures not only survival, but that cultivates community. To all of our wonderful benefactors–volunteers, donors, guests, clients, staff, friends, and family, bless you for keeping the “Giving” in thanks. And for doing that not only during the Holiday Season, but every single day.