ST. ANTHONY DINING ROOM'S 30 MILLIONTH MEAL
Feeding Body and Spirit

Executive Director Fr. John Hardin, OFM, (left) congratulates Mark Ellinger, recipient of St. Anthony Dining Room’s 30 millionth meal.

“A smile can be tremendously affirming to someone’s humanity,” says Mark Ellinger, a San Francisco resident for 35 years and regular Dining Room guest since 2001.

On April 30, Mark received the Dining Room’s 30 millionth meal. And while the food he received nourished his body, Mark says it was the smiles that restored his spirit in his journey out of homelessness.

As flashbulbs popped and fellow guests applauded, Mark described how he felt when Executive Director Fr. John Hardin, OFM, served him the milestone tray of beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes, garden salad, fresh fruit and cheesecake: “Really honored actually, really moved, and a lot of gratitude… I think this place is incredible, and the people here have done nothing but show a great deal of love.”

Standing 6-foot-4 with frosty white hair, Mark lived on the streets for five years and is a recovering heroin addict. He is also a housing advocate, a tenant representative and organizer, a photographer, a father and a friend.

The Power of Addiction
Born the same year the Dining Room opened, Mark spent most of his 53 years living in “pretty nice places.” He owned a music and film
recording studio in the Mission District and enjoyed relative stability.

But Mark’s world turned upside down when numerous friends died and he became estranged from his family—all within a few short months. Not knowing how to cope, he started using heroin to ease the pain. Three months later Mark lost everything, including contact with his son, and found himself living on the streets.

A near-fatal overdose caused Mark to re-evaluate his life. “During the two months I spent in the hospital, I decided I wanted to live,” says Mark. “My entire focus then became to stay clean.” Mark’s recovery shares two elements with others who have sought sobriety: it came from the inside out and it was a long process that was completely consuming. “It has to come from within — no one can will you to become sober,” says Mark.

Learning to live without drugs was only the first step, however. Mark faced some of his toughest moments after leaving the hospital, when his housing status was in limbo. “Without housing, you cannot have a life because you’re in survival mode,” says Mark. “Having a home allows you to focus and to plan and to feel connected. During those times, it meant a great deal to come into the Dining Room and have someone smile at me.”

Putting the Pieces Back Together
Mark now lives in a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel, which he pays for with Supplemental Security Income. He also found a therapist who diagnosed his bipolar disorder and prescribed appropriate medication.

Mark’s recovery also included a healing of spirit. “The biggest obstacle for me was getting past the stigma that society places on the homeless,” says Mark. “It’s hard not to internalize the emotions that come with being looked at as filthy, diseased, uneducated, worthless…not human.”

In addition to the Dining Room, the Central City SRO Collaborative helped Mark feel human again—and provided a channel for changing how our community views housing and people who are homeless.

Mark first contacted the Collaborative because his landlord refused to supply hot water. He has since become a regular volunteer who attends tenant representative meetings and public hearings. His colleagues at the Collaborative share his passion for affordable housing, and Mark describes them as “the first true friends I’ve had in a long time.”

As Mark spent more time in the Tenderloin, he began taking digital photographs of the unique architecture in the neighborhood and editing them to bring out the beauty masked by neglect. “These buildings have so much history and are so important to the city in terms of the number of people they house,” says Mark.

Beyond the blessings of new colleagues and a channel for his artistic talents, though, Mark says the biggest gift of his sobriety has been reuniting with his son. “I couldn’t face him for a long time,” he says. “We see each other often now and have discovered we share a lot in common.”

Mark continues to eat in the Dining Room to stretch his fixed income a little further. “I always love coming to the Dining Room,” he says. “There is just so much combined energy here which seems to lift everyone up. The friars and everyone really put out a lot of love. And that’s what it’s totally about.”

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