San Francisco, CA
At a San Francisco Shelter for Unhoused Families, Cooking Helps Heal Trauma | KQED
“That level of insecurity in their home lives makes it really difficult for them to concentrate on whatever amazing instruction the teachers have in store for them once they get here every day,” Moran said.
As principal of a community school, Moran said her job is to make sure that students’ basic needs are met so they can learn better. That means partnering with local food, health care and housing organizations and turning the campus into a hub for easy access to services its immigrant and low-income student population needs.
Giving kids a safe place to sleep and a predictable routine can help lessen their anxiety. The shelter also focuses on the parents’ mental health by connecting them to social services and job training programs to help them get back on their feet.
To boost their morale, parents at the shelter are able to cook a meal together twice a month.
Cooking gives the parents agency and helps lift their self-esteem, said the shelter’s manager, Jacqui Portillo.
“They feel relaxed, they feel connected, they’re accomplished, they did something,” Portillo said.
“The parent has to be okay in order to support their kids,” she said. “And this little moment is helping them to really be more engaged with the kids.”
On a recent visit, several shelter residents volunteered to make red pozole – a spicy and hearty Mexican soup. Reporters Daisy Nguyen and Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli spoke with two moms at the shelter, who explained what cooking does for them.
Maria Figueroa
Figueroa migrated from Tijuana, Mexico, in July 2023 with her 18-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. She said it was too dangerous to raise her children in Mexico and is seeking political asylum in the U.S. When she arrived in San Francisco, she enrolled her kids in school and went back to school herself to train to be an in-home caregiver for sick and elderly people.
Figueroa said her kids often ask when they will get to taste her cooking again.
“I tell them, ‘God willing, when we have our own little place’ because, to be honest, we just can’t cook like that here [all the time] … only when an opportunity like this comes up,” she said.
She decided to make her signature dish – pozole – because it reminds her of home.
When we met, Figueroa had been staying at the shelter for nine months and said she saw the place as home and the shelter residents, her neighbors.
“Regardless of how you see the situation, we’re all here for the same thing. We all need a home, we need a place to sleep, a place to eat while we figure out our situation and here, we all see each other and what we’re going through,” she said.
Analy Padilla
Analy Padilla is from Honduras and has been living in this country for 21 years. She also came to this shelter nine months ago after her husband lost his job, and they couldn’t afford the rising cost of rent in San Francisco.
She said she, her husband and their two sons spent several nights sleeping in their car. They called everywhere for an open shelter space.
“And when they told me there was a spot for my family to stay here, I cried,” Padilla said. “I was so happy. I was finally going to have a home to be with my family.”
Padilla said it’s not easy sharing the bathroom, eating and sleeping spaces with strangers or packing up her stuff each morning. The experience hit her 15-year-old son Kevin hard, she said. At school, his grades dropped, he skipped classes, and he became withdrawn.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
One of San Francisco’s busiest freeways remained shut down Saturday, creating major traffic delays and dampening business for some local restaurants and shops.
All eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 just before the Bay Bridge are closed as crews work around the clock to rehabilitate the roadway. The 55-hour shutdown, which began on Friday night, is scheduled to last until Monday morning in time for the commute.
The closure has forced drivers onto detour routes, leading to heavy congestion for those trying to reach the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley.
The impact is being felt beyond the roadways.
At MoMo’s, a restaurant across from Oracle Park, staff found business noticeably slower.
“A little bit more mellow than usual. We usually see a little bit more foot traffic, a little bit more people on Saturdays,” said Daniel Bermudez, executive chef at MoMo’s.
Bermudez believes the freeway closure may be discouraging visitors from coming into the city this weekend, despite favorable weather.
“The weather is beautiful today. It’s nice and sunny. So we have plenty of tables outside,” he said.
With the San Francisco Giants playing an away game, the restaurant had hoped fans would still gather to watch, but turnout during game time remained light.
“This is kind of like our off-season Saturday. A lot slower than our baseball weekend,” said Casandra Alarcon, general manager at MoMo’s.
Other small businesses in the Mission Bay and South of Market neighborhoods reported similar trends, saying most of their customers are regulars who live nearby rather than visitors.
“A little bit slower for sure. Before, we had tourists come and walk to the baseball park,” said Ajaree Safron, manager at Brickhouse Cafe & Bar.
Caltrans has shut down eastbound lanes between 17th and 4th streets to repave the 71-year-old roadway. The goal is to extend the life of the Bayshore Freeway by another decade.
City and transportation officials said the timing of the closure was intentional, noting fewer major events scheduled in San Francisco this weekend, aside from the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Westbound lanes remain open, and officials said traffic heading into San Francisco from the East Bay has not been significantly affected.
“Getting into the city, it wasn’t too bad. Regular [traffic], what we expect on a Saturday morning,” said visitor Andrea Inouye.
While the closure has posed challenges for businesses, some workers said they are taking it in stride.
“Hopefully, it’s not for too long and we get past it, and get back to our normal routine,” Bermudez said.
Despite early concerns about widespread gridlock, transportation officials said the region has avoided the worst-case scenario. Traffic remains heavy in areas near detours, but the anticipated “carmageddon” has not materialized, in part because many drivers chose to avoid the area or take public transit.
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