Meals for Poor & Homeless Women & their Children

Report on Food Programs for Fall 2018
November 2018

We at Rosie’s Place are so grateful for your support of our critical Food Programs for poor and homeless women and their children, through GlobalGiving. With hundreds of healthy and hearty meals served every day, along with nutritious groceries from our Pantry—our Food Programs are vital nutritional and financial supplements for our guests. Thank you for helping us to do all that we did this past quarter:

From July 1, 2018 through September 30, 2018:

• 5,999 weekday breakfasts were served.
• 2,144 weekend brunches were served.
• 9,505 lunches were served.
• 8,788 dinners were served.
• This is a total of 26,436 nutritious meals were served over the quarter.

 From July 1, 2018 through September 30, 2018:

• Rosie’s Place’s Pantry welcomed 5,454 visits.

Below are the results of our ambitious FY2019 Goals for Rosie's Place's Food Programs:

Goal: Improve the nutritional meals served based on the 2015 – 2020 Dietary Guidelines for a 2,000 calorie daily diet.  A healthy eating pattern limits saturated fats and trans fats, added sugars and sodium.
Metric: 75% of the meals will contain less than 10% of calories per day from added sugars.
Metric: 75% of the meals will contain less than 10% of calories per day from saturated fats.
Metric: 75% of the meals will contain less than 2,300 mg of sodium daily.
Metric: 98% of the meals will contain one serving of fruit.
Metric: 85% of the lunches and dinners will contain three servings of vegetables.
Metric: 80% of the meals will contain 24 grams or more of fiber.
Metric: 80% of the meals will contain 5 ½ oz of protein.

Results: Goal met, with all of these metrics being met or exceeded over the course of the first quarter of FY2019.

Goal: Provide the Dining Room staff with a nutrition education class.
Metric: 100% of the Food Service Staff will take a nutrition education class.
Goal in progress. 

Goal:  Ensure that the Food Pantry is well stocked, daily, with a variety of nutritious foods.           
Metric: 65% of all canned goods will be low in sodium.
Result: Goal not met this quarter, with 30% of the canned goods were low in sodium. This is due to the lack of low-sodium foods available at the Food Bank.

Goal:  Have Food Pantry kiosk or sign up available for guests to schedule their Food Pantry visits.      
Metric:  200 guests will utilize the Food Pantry sign up each month which will alleviate the crowded Sitting Room and lobby.                                                                                                              
Goal met.

Recent Program Highlights:

• We continue to partner with Cooking Matters to offer up to 16 guests per month, the chance to join a one-hour class on healthy and cost-effective shopping, with each attendee presented with a bag, a cook book and a $10 supermarket gift card at the completion of the class. These classes are designed specifically for women who are caregivers of children 5 years of age and under. To date all classes have accommodated English-language speakers, but we are in the process of organizing a class for Spanish-language speakers.

• Under the weekly care of guests and Food Pantry staff and volunteers, our garden produced several bunches of kale, mustard and herbs that were added to the produce selection in the Pantry. Over the course of the quarter, at least 5 guests assisted with weeding, watering and harvesting the garden.

• Our Food Delivery Program serves 17 guests per month with pre-made bags delivered by volunteers to each guest who is unable to come in to “shop” in our Pantry.  This is currently the capacity of the program, though we hope to expand the program in the future to provide more women who have a difficult time coming to the Food Pantry—with groceries

Food assistance has been a core Rosie’s Place service since our very first day. On Easter Sunday in 1974, Kip Tiernan founded Rosie's Place in the old Rozen’s Supermarket on Columbus Avenue. With $250 she had raised from her friends, Kip mobilized a handful of volunteers to provide sandwiches and coffee to our first guests. Over the years, our facilities and programs have evolved and expanded to best meet our guests' needs. Throughout the decades, our Food Programs have been a constant—serving meals and providing groceries to thousands and thousands of women and children in need.

Our healthy meals and groceries for women and children can mean the difference between being homeless or housed—hungry or fed—distracted and anxious in class or attending school focused and ready to learn. Thank you for supporting this critical work.