#FilipinosFeedtheFrontlines want to go nationwide

SENOR SIGSIG

An employee at Senor Sigsig in San Francisco prepares meals for frontline workers.

It is common when you visit a Filipino household, you're greeted with "Have you eaten, yet?" followed by "Kain na!" (Let's eat!).

Aa in many cultures, food is central to Filipino culture and identity, so its no surprise when the coronavirus hit the U.S. the Filipino American community rallied around food to fend off the pandemic.

San Francisco's Kultivate Labs’ #FilipinosFeedTheFrontlines campaign has surpassed its initial goal of $100,000. After fundraising for a little over 100 days they’ve raised $101,512 from 1075 donors to feed frontline health workers, scientists, and San Francisco’s South of Market and Excelsior communities battling COVID-19. 

“With the help of over 1,000 donors from around the nation, we were able to hit our lofty goal of $100,000 to stabilize Filipino food businesses and send food to hard-hit communities and frontline health care workers," shares Desi Danganan, Kultivate Labs Executive Director.

"The only problem is that the crisis is not over. COVID-19 continues to decimate communities and the restaurant industry. 

"Our model of community stabilization works, so we’re going to scale it nationwide, to support Filipino American restaurants across the country, and their respective communities,” said Danganan.

The campaign has also helped bring nationwide awareness of the Fil-Am community’s contributions to the U.S healthcare industry and helped amplify the latest figures indicating that Filipino nurses account for almost 20% of registered nurses in California. At Seton Hospital in nearby Daly City, one of the largest medical facilities in Northern California, 60% of the employees are Filipino.

The campaign has also helped a dumber of fledgling Filipino-owned businesses who are able to keep their staff employed preparing the food.

“I am in awe of the SoMa Stabilization Fund’s grantees’ rapid response to the COVID-19 crisis. Within a week of the Shelter-in-Place order, Kultivate Labs partnered with other neighborhood community-based organizations like SOMCAN, West Bay and United Playaz to identify households that needed food delivery,” said Claudine del Rosario, Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development/SoMa Stabilization Fund Director.

“They’ve worked tirelessly to both support small local businesses, as well as serve the most vulnerable populations in our community. I’m incredibly grateful that we have leaders like Desi who are adept at leveraging City resources to help stabilize the community during this turbulent time.”

As the social distance rules and manadatory closure of dine-in restaurants continues, the Filipino-inspired program will continue and seek to expand in other parts of the country.

#FilipinosFeedtheFrontlines: Kultivate Labs is seeking partnerships with FilAm communities, restaurants, artists, and businesses across the United States to expand the program. For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.filipinosfeedthefrontlines.org.

Donate to #FilipinosFeedtheFrontlines to help restaurants and health care workers

A number of San Francisco Bay Area restaurants serving Filipino food, or Filipino-inspired dishes, opened up in recent months hoping to ride the wave of the emerging popularity of Filipino cuisine.

Then the coronavirus hit US shores and suddenly, those new restaurants found themselves in trouble. Opening a restaurant is a risky venture to begin with but when the isolate-in-place mandates took hold the restaurants took a massive hit, according to a survey by Kultivate Labs, a San Francisco-based Filipino American business incubator and arts organization. 

The survey conducted by the nonprofit found that more than half of the Filipino restaurants it works with have suffered a 90 percent drop in revenue, according to Desi Danganan, Kultivate Labs' executive director.

That drop in business was one of the main inspirations for Kultivate to launch Filipinos Feed the Frontlines, a fundraising initiative with the goal of raising $100,000 to pay struggling Filipino restaurants to provide 10,000 free meals to local hospitals and vulnerable people in predominantly Filipino neighborhood in the South of Market which includes the Filipino Cultural Heritage District.

The concept is simple: Out of the pool of funds, at about $10 a meal, restaurants prepare meals for health care workers and community members in the SoMa neighborhood who have lost their income source, elderly who can't fend for themselves and others. Its a win-win for the hospital workers and for the struggling restaurant owners.

A portion of the pool will be distributed by local nonprofits to bring food to vulnerable people in the SoMa neighborhood, where a large number of low-income and elder Filipino Americans with limited income live — though Danganan stresses that the meals will go to anyone who needs them, not just Filipinos.

However, in the six Bay Area hospitals receiving funds, a good portion of the workers receiving the meals are Filipino. In California, 20% of the nurses are of Filipino descent. At one hospital, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, 60% of the nursing staff are Filipinos.

The program draws on the Filipino value of kapwa. As defined by the father of modern Filipino psychology, Virgilio Enriquez, kapwa means “shared identity,” “equality,” and “being with others.” To put it simply, kapwa is the deep empathy individuals have towards fellow human beings.
The nine San Francisco Bay Area businesses currently providing meals through Filipinos Feed the Frontlines include: Nick’s on Grand, Señor Sisig, Lumpia Company, Sarap Shop, Mestiza and Little Skillet, FK Frozen Custard, Manila Bowl, SF Chickenbox/IVSF Catering, and the pop-up Ox and Tiger. 

As of Tuesday (April 15) morning, almost $33,000 has been collected towards the $100,000 goal. For more information on Filipinos Feed the Frontlines, or to donate, link here..

Big thanks to @OneDownMedia for these powerful videos to support #FilipinosFeedTheFrontlines.