Sustenance

Food has the power to connect and engage people, and build community.  This is evidenced by programs that center around food, such as home-delivered meals, adult day programs and senior congregate meals—enticing older adults with sustenance and access to social services that support healthy aging in community.  During my graduate gerontology studies, I worked at On Lok, Inc.’s 30^th Street Senior Center location, which provides all three programs across the continuum of care in its 3-story building:

·       1^st floor kitchen, where Valley Services (same contractor used by Meals on Wheels San Francisco) prepare meals for home deliveries and six community dining sites 

·       1^st floor dining room for 30^th Street Senior Center participants, who have access to 3^rd floor’s activities, health and wellness, social services, computer lab, hair salon and snack bar

·       2^nd floor dining room for On Lok’s Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) participants, who have access to activities, health and social services, and roundtrip transportation

·       3^rd floor garden, which grows edible plants harvested for monthly Garden Market. The garden has views of the adjoining Pritikin Mansion estate, which is up for sale ($12.5 million price from September 2017 dropped to $5.5 million). 

Earlier this month, I returned to 30^th Street Center to join the celebration of its new campaign, “Mission Nutrition.”  “Mission” campaign name is double entendre, referencing 30^th Street Senior Center’s location in the Mission neighborhood, attracting mostly Latinx participants, though other sources place it in more upscale Noe Valley and Glen Park.  

30^th Street Senior Center management team’s Director Valorie Villela and On Lok, Inc. CEO Grace Li welcomed guests, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed. 

Informal meet and greet before official program began.  Of course, there was food (passed around in trays by Oakland catering staff) and hosted bar. 

On Lok 30^th Street Senior Center Chair Joseph Barbaccia, MD, provided an overview of 30^th Street Senior Center--San Francisco’s largest multi-purpose senior center connecting 6,700 older adults annually to each other and a wide range of services to support their health, well-being and independence.  The Center is the lead agency for the City’s evidence-based health promotion programs (including Always Active^SM, Healthier Living-Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, and Diabetes Education Empowerment Program).  All social services (Aging and Disability Resource Center, Case Management) are offered in bilingual English/Spanish format.

Hadley Hall provided a brief history of 30^th Street Senior Center, which will celebrate its 40^th anniversary next year!  As Director of San Francisco Home Health Service, Hadley initiated acquisition of the 30^th Street building for $1 and $750,000 mortgage in 1979.  He also obtained grants from Haas family and San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services’ Office on Aging (OOA) to convert the 3-story former psychiatric hospital into a vibrant senior center offering activities and meal programs.  Hadley introduced Valorie, who was hired as the Center's Nutritionist in 1979. 

As the Center's Director, Valorie talked about Mission Nutrition program goals to help older adults maintain proper health with hot, nutritious meals. Last year, Mission Nutrition served over 88,870 meals in community dining sites, and delivered another 130,000 meals to more than 360 homebound older adults. 

Despite the smokey air from the Camp Fire that started earlier that day, I longed to visit the 3^rd floor Garden but it was dark (thanks to daylight savings time’s fall back) and the door to the Garden was locked.  So time for … Flashback Friday Fotos!

30th Street Center's garden beds with colorful wall mural  

Monthly Garden Market sells herbs, greens, fruits and flowers 

Way back in Fall 2011 (before I began this blog), I volunteered at 30^th Street Senior Center as Project SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders) coach.  In addition to reviewing English and U.S. history for the citizenship exam, we rehearsed singing “You Are My Sunshine” in English and Spanish for an intergenerational program with K-8 students at Synergy School, a teachers’ cooperative in the Mission District.  With City College of San Francisco ESL instructor Elizabeth Silver interpreting in sign language, Center participants provided entertainment after Synergy School's teachers, parents and students provided lunch per Thanksgiving myth.   

Synergy School's mural with wisdom by Chief Seattle: “Humankind is but a thread within the web of life.  All things are bound together.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” #RakeAmericaGreatAgain  

With my allergies triggered by the worst air quality worldwide after the devastating Camp Fire, I became a shut-in for a week.  (Wish I had attended Gerontological Society of America's Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston instead!)  Homebound, I forgot about the outside world as I enjoyed cheap and nourishing Depression Cooking (mostly pasta with beans or vegetable) inspired by Youtube celebrity chef Clara Cannucciari (1914-2013), nonagenarian author of Clara’s Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression (2009).  According to Clara, people bought chapters rather than whole books “back then” (p. 170).  I was grateful to savor all six chapters in this 194-page book, co-authored with her grandson Christopher who filmed her Youtube series. 

According to a recent report by the Federal Reserve Board, millennials are killing countless industries because they're mostly poor with no money to spend... so millennials should take comfort from Grandma Clara’s lessons on surviving the Great Depression.  
During the Depression, Clara’s family rarely ate meat which was reserved for their Saturday meal, and dessert only on Sunday.  Clara wrote: “No one ever celebrated your birthday back in the old days.  Birthdays were nothing,… we didn’t have birthday cakes.  The day came and went… We went without having a lot of things, but we were happy—we didn’t know what we were missing because we didn’t think we should have it (p. 167)."  Further on, Clara continued, “During the Depression, there were no gifts or celebrations at all for the holidays.  For us, it was all about the family being together (p. 176)."  The only consumption was food, which the family took part in preparing, including working the garden and walking to the grocery store and then back carrying bags of groceries.

Here are some of my favorite morsels from do-it-yourself Clara, who quit high school to help support her family, by walking five miles to work filling Hostess Twinkies:

“We just relied on what we did have—the ability to sacrifice and put our needs in perspective (p. 1)."

“Where there’s dirt, there’s food (p. 13)."

“If you don’t think you have time to exercise, just clean your kitchen (p. 19)."

“…when you go to the grocery store, … buy only what you can comfortably carry, which is most likely all you need (p. 105)."

Mmm, good!