San Diego News

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.

Celebrating local healthy Asian and Pacific Islander cuisine Increasing access to healthy dining options in San Diego through small food industry businesses San Diego, CA – In celebration of National Nutrition Month’s theme of “Enjoying the Taste of Eating Right”, thirteen local Asian and Pacific Islander (API) restaurants in San Diego will present their best practices and lessons learned as they shift their businesses to healthier dining options through a press conference scheduled on March 26 th , 2014, 10 am – 12 noon at the administrative office of Operation Samahan at 1428 Highland Avenue, National City, CA 91950.

These thirteen restaurants, from the City of San Diego, El Cajon, National City, Spring Valley, Mira Mesa, and Chula Vista, are members of the STRIVE (Strategies to Research and Implement the Vision of Health Equity) San Diego network, a collaboration of API community-based organizations committed to addressing health disparities within and among API communities in San Diego.

STRIVE San Diego focuses on risk factors, like nutrition and weight management, by connecting with local small business API restaurants to offer healthier food choices and nutrition labeling. With rates of overweight, obesity, and diabetes increasing and becoming urgent public health concerns, STRIVE San Diego and its participating restaurants are finding innovative ways to increase the access to healthier dining options. Media representatives, government officials, community leaders, other restaurant owners, and the public are encouraged to attend this press conference, which will also provide information about and experiences of participating in STRIVE San Diego as well as food samples from the partner restaurants.

STRIVE San Diego, a project of Operation Samahan, Inc. was one of fifteen community-based organizations chosen nationwide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Community Health to carry out a high-impact, population-wide project. Funded through Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH), the national initiative aims to eliminate racial and ethnic gaps in health, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

“I would like this project to have more funds to help more restaurants do more nutrition analysis… I know a lot of people want to [eat healthy] more but sometimes it’s hard for them to make decisions on what to eat” said Gayle Sayyadeth, the owner of Finest Thai restaurant.

About Operation Samahan, Inc. Operation
Samahan has served San Diego County since 1973 and aims to promote better health and living conditions for all persons in the community, especially among indigent, low-income, uninsured, and underserved individuals and families. Operation Samahan provides high-quality, affordable, and culturally accessible medical and dental care, health promotion, and social services. LINK to STRIVE FLYER: http://tinypic.com/r/xpvnmq/8