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St. Anthony's races to prepare for service in new dining room

By , Columnist
Construction continues at the new St. Anthony's dining room on Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, September 12, 2014.
Construction continues at the new St. Anthony's dining room on Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, September 12, 2014.Sarah Rice/Special to The Chronicle

There may be no street corner that captures the grit and soul of San Francisco better than the intersection of Jones and Golden Gate. This is a city of compassion, activism and innovation, and all of that is represented by the St. Anthony's dining room, which has been on that Tenderloin corner for over six decades.

Charles Sommer has been managing the free lunch program for 14 years.

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"There has been a free meal served at noon on this street corner every day since 1950," he said.

And now, with the hard work and generosity of San Franciscans, St. Anthony's is preparing to open a new, $22.5 million dining room and a $40 million affordable-housing structure on Oct. 4.

"We've been talking about this for 15 years," said St. Anthony's publicist Karl Robillard. "We couldn't have continued in our old space."

That's a given. The old dining room is actually a converted auto body shop, which is why there is an inclined ramp to the basement where meals were served. Until the new dining room is finished, the St. Anthony's crew is serving some 2,400 meals a day in a temporary location across the street.

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That sounds like a lot of meals, but the eventual total will be higher.

"We keep saying we hope to put ourselves out of business and end hunger," Executive Director Barry Stenger said. "But they keep coming."

Sommer says they hosted 2,700 in the old facility and he expects nearly 3,000 a day in the new room. That represents 40 percent of the free meals in San Francisco. In February, the program reached a milestone of 40 million meals served.

Anniversary of opening

There's also a neat symmetry to holding the grand opening on Oct. 4. That was the date in 1950 when the first free meals were served to 400 needy guests. When officials realized that it would be possible to finish construction on the anniversary of that first meal, they targeted the date.

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"Of course our contractors are kicking us for it now," Stenger joked.

The new facility will improve the operation on every level. One noticeable change is that the lunch line will gather in a covered arcade, rather than blocking the sidewalk, as was the case in the old building.

Sommer is also pleased to be working with a kitchen that is designed to serve communal meals, with updated equipment. One change is a large, open flame gas grill. Until now all food has been prepared in steam kettles.

"We've never had fire in the kitchen before," Sommer said. "At least intentionally."

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There are some quirks to running a daily lunch program that depends on food donations. First there is the time crunch.

"The chefs show up at 6 a.m. and we have to have a meal out by 10," Sommer said. "No matter what the contingencies are, we have to be done by 10."

It helps to be adaptable. Although always pleased to have the donations, the staff is never sure what will be coming through the door.

"We joke that it is kind of like 'Iron Chef,' " Sommer said. "The Food Bank will call and say a Greek importer just donated seven pallets of cheese. The chefs do a great job of incorporating ingredients into what they are making."

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Volunteers crucial

The other key component to the St. Anthony's meal program is the corps of volunteers. Hundreds of everyday San Franciscans help get the food out, clear the tables and interact with the guests.

With the new facility almost ready, the St. Anthony's group has come up with an innovative way to reflect the role of the volunteers. They came up with a program called "Set the Table" to get the place settings, trays and utensils from the old room to the new.

The idea is to get about 200 people to form a human chain, passing everything from person to person to set the tables in the new dining room.

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Then it will be time to eat. And to begin the 65th year of the simple kindness of providing food for those who have none.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius

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Columnist

C.W. Nevius has been a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle for more than 20 years, covering sports, reviewing movies and spotting trends. He is currently a metro columnist, appearing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

As a sports columnist, he climbed the ski jump at the Norway Olympics, ate bee larvae in Japan and skied in the French Alps. In all, he covered eight Olympic Games, from Australia to Spain to Korea. (And the strangest place of all, Los Angeles.)

He also wrote about riding the “Straight Talk Express” with John McCain during his first presidential bid, parachuting out of an airplane and running the Boston Marathon.

Although he reviewed movies only for a year, he did rate a blurb with his byline on the DVD box of “The Santa Clause 2,” to the undying embarrassment of his kids.

He co-wrote “Splash Hit,” about building the Giants’ waterfront stadium, with Joan Walsh. His latest book is “Crouching Father, Hidden Toddler: A Zen Guide for New Dads.”

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