Today, the employees of many service agencies throughout San Francisco banded together to rally for services for seniors and people with disabilities. We convened on City Hall steps with songs, signs, and plenty of food. Thank goodness it was sunny and warm.
Everyone was invited to donate food for a bake sale, because good old fashioned values are what we're trying to preserve. You know, values like not tossing seniors in nursing homes or writing off disabled people as worthless. While the most generous donations came from friends of our agencies, I did notice that some tourists and City Hall employees were mesmerized enough by the sweet scent of sugar to drop a few bucks in the bucket.
The rule of the day appeared to be "desserts that are decadent and homey." All the desserts were hearty and filling--things that mommy would have baked to have ready for you when you got home. I tried an amazing peach/ginger breakfast cake (which happened to be vegan), some oatmeal cookies were flying off the table, there were what looked like a million brownies, and some pies as well. Someone even brought adorable bone-shaped dog biscuits. Her friend was a defense attorney in the infamous San Francisco dog mauling case, and after that case he retired to the countryside and now makes horse biscuits as a hobby. He made dog biscuits for her dog and she was nice enough to share with everyone. Those who were watching their waistlines were happy to buy a few biscuits for their furry friends at home.
One of the great things about San Francisco is how easy it is to find others who love food as much as I do. The participants were not people who do anything even remotely related to cooking for a living (aside from the few who run meal delivery programs). And yet, at the first battle cry, these incredibly busy people all retreated into their respective kitchens and whipped out tray after tray of amazing treats. And no, not all the bakers were women. It was a non-gender-specific equal opportunity show off your skills day!
Everything was sold on a donation basis whether you could donate a nickel or $20. My cookies (ashamedly pulled from the fridge in a mad dash to make some kind of contribution), sold out within minutes. Yes, I'm bragging even though I was too tired to bake something especially for the sale. I was a little sad I didn't have time to bake more things, but the table was actually overflowing with donations of food so I'm sure they did fine.
The sale was followed by visits to the Mayor's and supervisors' offices. It's good to remind them that San Francisco is home to a myriad of people, and that we all need love and support from our city.
0 comments:
Post a Comment