St. Francis Center
Serving Hope
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
While homelessness in L.A. County is down for the first time in four years, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) 2018 Homeless Count, SFC’s service area continues to have the largest number of homeless individuals, over 14,000, in the county. SFC continues to experience a demand for its services and staff have witnessed more newly homeless guests at our daily meal program, which is in line with the LAHSA data that more people are falling into homelessness than ever before. Thirty percent of LA county residents struggle with food insecurity and 100% of SFC families served fall well below the federal poverty level of $24,600 annually. Their average annual household income is $11,184. 74% of their income goes to rent, leaving little extra to purchase fresh, healthy food. Six years ago, SFC had 500 families registered in our pantry. Now including our two satellite pantry sites, SFC has 1,500 families registered.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Family Well-Being Program
SFC also offers weekly food pantry services four times a week for families, youth, disabled adults, seniors, veterans, and those living in supportive housing at our on-site pantry. Each household can receive a food box as frequently as once a week that contains 60 - 70 pounds of nutritious food, including fresh produce, dairy, meat, and dry goods. SFC also offers a pantry delivery program to vulnerable guests in order to help them avoid being exposed to the outside world.
Families and individuals enrolled in our pantry program are eligible to be part of other well-being programs. Our summer camp program offers overnight, weeklong camps, nutritious cooking camps, and other day camps for children of families served through the Pantry Service. Our Tuesday Diaper Program is available to families enrolled in our pantry program and allows families to come once a month to receive diapers, wipes, baby supplies.
Unhoused Well-Being Program
St. Francis Center's Unhoused Well-Being Program serves unhoused individuals and families living in Los Angeles. Our breakfast program provides our unhoused guests with warm, nutritious meals and sack lunches six days a week. During breakfast hours, our resource team distributes hygiene kits and hosts a resource table located outside the center to offer supportive services to our guests.
SFC's Health & Hygiene Services provide showers to our guests two times a week inside the center. Clothing and hygiene kits, which include basic toiletries, new underwear, socks, and towels, are distributed during the shower program. We provide showers four days a week onsite and through our mobile shower partners. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we offer laundry services through our partners The Laundry Truck LA.
Youth Summer Camp Program
St. Francis Center's Campership Program is part of our year-round programs that provide health and stability for the extremely low-income families we serve through our pantry services. We offer programs throughout summer that leave a lasting impression on youth by not only connecting them with nature, but by engaging them in a variety of activities, including weeklong, overnight camp, art classes, nutritious cooking, and sports and activities, that can open their eyes to new opportunities and a brighter future.
Resource Services
All of SFC’s programs are a way to introduce individuals and families to our supportive services that will help them on their path to stability. These services include referrals for health care, assistance with shelter and housing, clothing and hygiene items, job preparedness, assistance obtaining IDs, as well as a mailbox to individuals without an address. SFC’s supportive services are designed to be holistic, providing guests with additional tools to improve their lives beyond the immediate crisis intervention. Participants in our Rental and Utility Assistance program (RUA) not only receive financial help, but take a financial literacy course, establish personalized plans of action, and are enrolled in our pantry program for additional stability. Guests who utilize any of our programs are directed to resources that can assist with health and human service needs, which reduces stress and increases awareness of opportunities for impoverished guests.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of meals served or provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Homeless people, Extremely poor people, Low-income people, Working poor, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Unhoused Well-Being Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Objective 1: Facilitate Healthy Living
Family Well-Being Program
Provide a total of 43,000 Pantry Service grocery visits for families and individuals on site and at satellite pantry sites.
Ensure pantry participants can select over 40-50 pounds of food each visit that includes fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, rice, beans and canned food.
Unhoused Well-Being Program
Improve nutrition in the community by providing 140,000 warm, wholesome breakfasts and lunches annually.
Provide shower and hygiene kit services to 3,500 2,000 homeless guests annually.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We provided 100,000 meals to our guests experiencing homelessness (more than double what we were serving six years ago) through our warm, nutritious breakfast served on-site six days a week. We also provided almost 45,000 pantry boxes through our on-site pantry services and satellite pantry sites (113 percent more visits that in 2018). We expanded our pantry services to include five satellite pantry sites in neighborhoods lacking access to fresh, affordable food, and we provide pop-up pantry programs on an as-needed basis in food desert community across Los Angeles. Through our case management offerings, we are providing more comprehensive services for our guests to get them on a long-term path to stability including emergency shelter, permanent, supportive housing, employment opportunities, utilities and rental assistance.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Volunteers play a vital role in supporting SFC's daily operations. Last year, volunteers donated over 20,000 hours to St. Francis Center!
We are currently partnered Metta Center for Psychotherapy and Wellbeing to provide therapy and counseling to our guests. Metta comes to SFC every Saturday to serve our guests and are currently working out of our Resource Services office. St. Francis Center has also bolstered our healthcare provider partnerships, and now have ongoing wellness days with USC Dental, UCLA Eye Clinic, Clinica Romero, and UCLA Mobile Health. We are partnered with The Laundry Truck LA to provide mobile laundry services to our community twice a week. We have partnerships with Chase Bank to offer financial literacy classes and with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to offer nutritious cooking classes. We partner with Doordash to delivery our pantry program boxes to vulnerable individuals.
SFC has longstanding partnerships with many food suppliers from large stores, including Target, Trader Joe's, and Costco. We also rescue food from USC Dining Halls. We are partnered with other nonprofits like the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Food Forward, to help rescue additional food. Last year, we rescued 1.65 million pounds of food.
When the City of Los Angeles rolled out its new recycLA program, SFC was one of the first food recovery agencies to forge partnerships with three of the city's seven waste haulers. Our advocacy work with the LA Food Policy Council was instrumental in creating a citywide approach to waste management that included food waste reduction, composting and food recovery.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2023, St. Francis Center achieved the following outcomes:
Rescued 1.65 million pounds of food.
141,137 meals through our breakfast program.
335 meals served through Thursdays Collective.
Had 44,908 visits to our pantry program.
Delivered 2,345 pantry program boxes to vulnerable guests unable to leave their homes.
5,122 visits to our Friday senior pantry program. In an effort to combat isolation, our seniors are invited to enjoy a light meal, an activity, and pick up their pantry box.
107 campers enjoyed overnight camp at Camp Bob Waldorf, day camps included cooking, mosaic art, poetry, meditation, yoga, HIIT, and a field trip to Grand Performances.
Our Tuesday Diaper program had 1,790 visits and 103,336 diapers were distributed to our families.
Kept 52 families housed with our rental and utility assistance program.
Provided 3,500 guests with resource services (mail, phone, resources, and referrals)
Provided over 1,900 showers onsite at SFC and through our mobile shower partner, the Shower of Hope team.
52 visits from medical partners including UCLA Health, Clinica Romero, and UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic
Provided 6,504 guests with emergency clothing.
Distributed 6,700 hygiene kits to guests in need.
Washed, dried, and folded 2,100 loads of laundry for our guests with partner The Laundry Truck LA.
Launched a new youth program, Youth Achievement Year (YAY) Program, a weekly whole health and wellness program provides our teens with mental and physical health education, tutoring, and life skills.
SFC Volunteers donated over 20,000 hours.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
St. Francis Center
Board of directorsas of 02/20/2024
Mrs. Elvira Valenzuela
Vice President, East West Bank
Hilarion O'Connor
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Stephen J. Erigero
Ropers Majeski Khn & Bentley PC
David H. Smith
Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP (HCVT)
John Horn
Bighorn Financial, Inc.
Michael McGuinness
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
Mark Wilson
Retired Banking Professional
Alyssa Morrisroe
Raytheon
John Hardin
Our Lady of Guadalupe Province
Dave Nuttall
Franciscan Ministries
Jim Sarni
Payden & Rygel
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Not applicable -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: