Antonio Donates $2 million to help feed up to 900 individuals each day

SAN DIEGO, CA-March 14, 2014- Father Joe’s Villages announced today a $2-million donation from Franklin Antonio, co-founder, executive vice president and chief scientist at Qualcomm, Inc., to support its lunch program that provides nearly 300,000 lunches for the hungry each year. To honor Antonio’s $2-million gift, Father Joe’s Villages has renamed its services the Franklin Antonio Public Lunch Program.

“We are extremely grateful to Mr. Antonio for this tremendous donation, which will provide so many individuals with their only meal for the day,” said Diane Stumph, president of Father Joe’s Villages. “Mr. Antonio’s donation is great news for the souls who stand in line each day, and for all of San Diego because it shows that those with means care about their community and support their neighbors in need.”

The lunch program was one of the first services provided by Father Joe’s beginning in the early 1950s at St. Mary of the Wayside Chapel in East Village. A critical form of outreach to the poor and homeless in downtown San Diego and Barrio Logan, the program serves between 700 and 900 people daily.

The lunch program is offered free of charge and serves both our homeless neighbors on the street and many of the working poor who live in the nearby community. Those with disabilities comprise more than a third of those dining, and veterans are another 16 percent.

“Father Joe’s is a San Diego treasure. I’m incredibly impressed by what they accomplish, and I’m honored to be able to help,” said Antonio.

Mr. Antonio, one of Qualcomm’s founders, presently serves as its executive vice president and chief scientist.

Mr. Antonio also serves on the board of Genalyte Inc., a life sciences company. He is a graduate of University of California, San Diego, where he served on the board of the Center for Wireless Communication for over 10 years.

ABOUT FATHER JOE’S VILLAGES / ST. VINCENT DE PAUL VILLAGE
As San Diego’s largest residential homeless services provider, Father Joe’s Villages and partner agency St. Vincent de Paul Village have been empowering people to achieve self-sufficiency for over 62 years. What started as a small chapel serving San Diego’s impoverished has grown into a cutting-edge provider of innovative housing programs and services. The agencies serve more than 3,000 meals and house over 1,200 individuals every day. This includes over 200 children and over 200 military veterans. As industry thought-leaders, the agencies offer innovative solutions to address the complex needs of the homeless, regardless of age, race, culture or beliefs. Their primary goal is to transform lives and end the cycle of homelessness. To this end they provide meals, housing, healthcare, education, job training, child development and more in an internationally modeled “one-stop-shop” approach. For more information, please visit www.neighbor.org.