The Greening of St. Anthony's

    SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- San Francisco's landmark Dining
 Room for the poor has no choice but to carefully utilize every resource it
 has. Using a conscious recipe of food reclamation and resource management,
 recycling and composting, St. Anthony's offers 2,600 sustainably managed,
 healthy and filling meals 365 days a year at an average food cost of 33
 cents per serving; and at no cost to the hungry Dining Room guests.
 
     More than 75% of the 6,000 pounds of food that is prepared and served
 each day to San Francisco's hungriest residents is reclaimed food; such as
 second-harvest fruits and vegetables or day old baked goods from bakeries,
 which would otherwise be thrown away. To continue the cycle of local
 sustainability, 70% of the waste matter (from preparation scraps to
 unfinished meals) from St. Anthony Dining Room is composted or recycled,
 which is then used as soil amendment for local farms. In Spring 2008, St.
 Anthony's will also be opening San Francisco's first Leadership in Energy
 and Environmental Design LEED certified Green Direct Social Services
 building.
 
     This year St. Anthony's celebrated Earth Day with a healthy vegetarian
 meal of donated organic greens from Greenleaf Produce, freshly stuffed
 baked potatoes and reclaimed zucchini's from the Food Bank, and delicious
 donated desserts from Just Desserts Bakery.
 
     "Earth Day is really about bringing awareness to responsible
 utilization of our resources. At St. Anthony's we feed a lot of people
 every day, but we do it with serious consideration of the resources at
 hand. Food gets transformed to nourishment, waste gets transformed to
 compost, compost gets transformed to food, and lives get transformed in the
 process," noted St. Anthony's spokesperson, Francis Aviani.
 
     "As an award winning natural bakery, we create a lot of delicious
 desserts before we perfect a recipe," noted Just Desserts Executive Chef,
 Mani Niall. "As a socially-responsible business, it makes sense for those
 desserts to go to food banks or St. Anthony's."
 
     Just Desserts is known throughout the U.S. for their award winning all-
 natural desserts. Greenleaf Produce provides peak-of-the-season produce to
 many of San Francisco's finest restaurants and foodservice facilities. Both
 organizations contribute to Bay Area local sustainability by donating their
 overages to food banks and organizations like St. Anthony's.
 
     For 57 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 continuum of care that
 includes the Dining Room, Free Medical Clinic, drug and alcohol recovery
 programs, and an Employment Program/ Learning Center. St. Anthony
 Foundation does not accept any federal, state, or local government money
 and is entirely funded by private donations.
 
 
 

SOURCE St. Anthony Foundation