An oasis offers relief in San Francisco's Filipino district

Kapwa Gardens, beflore (above) and now (below).

With apologies to singer Joni Mitchell's hit "They Found Paradise and Turned It Into A Parking Lot," Filipino Americans found a parking lot and turned it into paradise.

The Filipino American community in San Francisco turned a parking lot in the middle of the Filipino Heritage District South of Market Street and turned it into a neighborhood park -- Kapwa Gardens -- for the children and elders who live nearby.

"We imagined creating a space that would be a cultural asset for SOMA Pilipinas that would connect all of the different residents, students, and workers in the areaway showcasing activities that heal the mind and body and expands our consciousness and raises the level of empathy in a downtrodden area of SF," cites the park website.

Unknown to the shoppers on Market Street and the office workers at the companies on the edge of the SOMA Pilipinas, in the alleyways' homes, apartment buildings and residence hotels, a community of Filipino American community is thriving, sending their kids to Bessie Carmichael School and attending mass at St. Patrick's Church or eating at Filipino food at the neighborhood restaurants, whose very presence is promoting Filipino cuisine into the mainstream foodie culture.

“There are many residents in the area who lack their own outdoor space, including a large number of nearby single-room occupancy hotel residents,” said Kultivate Labs' founder and executive director Desi Danganan.

967 Mission has been a parking lot for decades. With the commencement of the 5M real estate development around the corner, the City of San Francisco gained possession of the parking lot. An RFP was issued in the Fall of 2019 to use the space while the long drawn-out process of creating senior housing on the site develops.

Kultivate Labs won the city's approval because the nonprofit community-based organization proposed creating a space around "Kapwa"— Filipino spiritual belief of interconnectedness. "Kapwa" is a recognition of a shared identity, an inner self, shared with others. "Kapwa" is an extension of deep empathy, explains the park's website.

As planners hurdle the red tape involved in the planning process for housing, residents and neighboring workers will have a place to take mental health breaks, escape from the tensions of anti-Asian attacks and the uncertainty of catching COVID-19.

The park formally opened on April 14. The former parking lot has a brightly painted bus and mural and a mini-grove of calamnsi trees are ready for picking; bamboo and herbs are growing in the planters; food trucks sign up to park there; Filipino bands and dancers perform for whoever drops by; a weekly yoga class is offered; free COVID tests. are offered twice a week; and Filipino seniors sit in the shade and share gossip.

Built by volunteers, volunteers will help maintain the space. Kapwa Gardens will be open Wednesday through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

#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.

Sunday Read: New banners stake out Filipino American district in San Francisco

New banners in San Francisco's SOMA Pilipinas say 'Filipinos live here.

EVEN THOUGH FILIPINOS are the largest Asian ethnic group in California, they are often mistaken for Chinese,  Vietnamese, Burmese, Malaysians, Thai or Latino.

The Giants fans, the employees at Twitter, Amazon, Google and the other tech companies, the millions of tourists and conventioneers, shoppers and museum goers may not know it, but they work and play in a Filipino American neighborhood.

To increase visibility and to pronounce to the world that the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood is the the Filipino Cultural Heritage District, banners have been placed on street posts earlier this month, Filipino American History Month. 

On the banners are pictures of the Filipino American residents of SOMA Pilipinas, the community activists, artists, the students, the elderly, and the thousands of service workers who work in the city's hotels, restaurants and offices.

“SoMa has kids and families, in spite of what others say, we live and thrive here and the banners represent that.” SoMa resident Mary Ann Magsaca, told the Philippine News. She is featured in the campaign with her two young daughters that attend Bessie Carmichael Elementary.

The design team that created the artwork for the campaign saw it as an opportunity to send a humanizing message.

“The concept to us behind the pole banners is to show the complex vibrancy of our SOMA Pilipinas neighborhood: a beautiful spectrum of layered stories of who the people are that have defined this part of the city. We are happy, fun-loving, fearless, strong. Being visible in this way is our way of saying, if you see us– truly see us, displacement is not an option.” said An Otherwise Co. Co-Founder Irene Faye Duller to the Philippine News.

SOMA Pilipinas was designated as a cultural heritage district in 2016, and last year received a state designation by the California Arts Council.

Sabrina Pacheco of Gold Metropolitan Media, the city light pole banner company that applied the banners said, “The SOMA Pilipinas Community Pride Campaign marks a step towards placemaking for the Cultural Heritage District and offers a powerful new way to enhance the spirit, energy, pride, and vibrancy of the community.”

The apartment building owned by the Filipino fraternal organization Gran Oriente, was bought by Mission Housing Development Corp. to keep it's tenants from being evicted.

Four families who have lived for generations at 657-659 Natoma St., in the heart of SOMA Pilipinas, are facing eviction by Michael Chung, founder and managing principal of Caerus Investment Advisors, LLC. Ironically, Chung and his family live in one of the newer high-rise condominiums located in the district emphasizing the income gap between district residents.

Supervisor Jane Kim has striven to ensure that affordable housing be built into the massive new developments that are in the planning process so that some residents can stay in the neighborhood, but some question if efforts by Kim and housing advocates are enough to assure the continuing character of the Filipino district.

The banners are a small step, but it sends a strong message to all would-be interlopers, "Don't forget we live here. This is our home!"

“When I looked up and saw {the banners} on the way to work, I felt proud yet melancholy because it was a hard struggle to get to this point. Two years for me but 100 years for the community,” said Desi Danganan, executive director of Kultivate Labs, a SoMa based nonprofit.

Olympic gold medal winner Vicki Manolo Draves grew up in the SoMa Pilipinas neighborhood.

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