Dry Toast - Senior Center in SF can no longer afford Peanut Butter

[RamboLiberal]

At the Curry Senior Center in San Francisco's Tenderloin, which serves breakfast to hundreds of low-income elders every day, peanut butter for the toast is now a thing of the past. It is a $5,000 annual cost the center can no longer afford.

At the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, staff meetings are planned for the next three weeks to look at how the $8 billion organization - one of the biggest charities in the nation - will meet all of its pledges next year.

The economic downturn is hitting Bay Area foundations and social service providers hard. Charities are faced with cutting services at the same time people need more help.

"We just toured the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos and heard the director say she's seeing former donors and former employees come in for help," said Emmett Carson, CEO and president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which has $1.7 billion in assets (having lost $9 million in the recent market downturn) and serves Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. "That was a pretty telling statement."

And, the grim economic news - including a global credit crunch, the slide in the Dow Jones industrial average, rising unemployment and a housing collapse - couldn't come at a worse time. Most philanthropic donations are made toward the end of the year.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/10/BUBB13DNHL.DTL&type=business

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Food banks are struggling here. I know workers are taking food home, too.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. k+r, n/t

Please show some love to yesterday's Food Bank thread (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4206119&mesg_id=4206119)

[AmBlue]

3. The rising price of cheese...

Last week, I was grocery shopping and standing in front of the refrigerated section where the cheese is on display. Next to me was a neatly dressed elderly woman with her all-white hair pulled into a bun. She was doing the same thing I was-- staring horrified at the prices while trying to see if any brand was on sale. After a few moments, she turned and began to walk away with no cheese. As she turned, she leaned over to me and said, "I use to like cheese. But I guess now they only want rich people to eat cheese."

My heart just broke at that. If I had had anything to spare that day, I would have bought her some.

[slackmaster]

4. A lot of people are allergic to the stuff anyway

Pure poison.

[KamaAina]

5. Let 'em eat jelly!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: