For more than a year I have said that all I really wanted was a room of my own, a place in which to write. Today I awoke at noon, ashamed that I had slept through half the day. I reminded myself that I had not missed any appointments or failed to keep any commitments. I also felt badly that I had only a few dollars left, and I don’t get my paycheck until Friday. I know where I can get food today and tomorrow. But on Wednesday and Thursday I will have to pay bus fare to work and back, and I will be in Sausalito without access to the food resources that I have here in San Francisco.
Let the Right decry “San Francisco Liberals” and the Left regret the gentrification and (St. Herb’s word) “Manhattanization” of our fair city, I am here to tell you that no one need go hungry in San Francisco.
How many cities are there who citizens can boast that hunger has been eradicated in their territory? I know only that being a San Franciscan means living among people who believe in the dignity of all persons and in the inherent right of all to the basic necessities of life. I am here to bear witness to the fact that even an old fool (and probably a scoundrel) like myself is cared for by the City of San Francisco (whose patron Saint himself threw off the expensive clothing his father had supplied for him and walked out naked into the world.)
San Franciscans give more than lip-service to these words from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, less than two years after that agency of peace and brotherhood among nations was born here in San Francisco:
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care . . . .”
Nowhere on earth could there be a better city.
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Back to that moment of waking (pace, Marcel): I am here.
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I get seven frozen meals each week from Project Open Hand. I heat them in my microwave and have at least one well-balanced, nutricious meal a day.
Yesterday I had Easter dinner at St. Anthony's Diningroom, which serves hot lunches every day. They also have a technology Center at which I am able to go online daily.
And Glide Memorial serves breakfast daily.
Please support their efforts.
