Meals for Poor & Homeless Women & their Children

Report on Food Programs in Fiscal Year 2017
September, 2017

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.

Poor and homeless women don’t wonder What will I have for lunch today? Instead, they ask themselves, Will I eat today? Can I afford to eat today? Serving a nutritious lunch and dinner every day, and offering assistance with groceries—the Food Programs at Rosie’s Place are vital nutritional and financial supplements for our guests.

From July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017:

• 20,294 weekday breakfasts were served.
• 9,153 weekend brunches were served.
• 38,401 lunches were served.
• 36,233 dinners were served.
• 70% of these lunches and dinners were underwritten through our Catering Program.
• This is a total of 104,081 nutritious meals served this year (almost 400 more than last year).  

From July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, Rosie’s Place Groceries:

• Welcomed 23,583 visits (up 4% from last year). This is an average of 1,965 visits per month. In total, there were 6,398 unique guests—1,805 of whom were new and 1,441 of whom were over the age of 65.

Below are the results on our ambitious FY2017 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: 65% of the meals will contain less than 10% of calories per day from added sugars.
Metric: 65% of the meals will contain less than 10% of calories per day from saturated fats.
Metric: 65% of the meals will contain less than 2,300 mg of sodium daily.
Metric: 100% of the meals will contain one serving of fruit.
Metric:75% of the lunches and dinners will contain three servings of vegetables.
Metric: 75% of the meals will contain 6oz of grains (3 oz whole and 3 oz refined) per day.
Metric: 75% of the meals will contain 5 ½ oz of protein per day.
Results: Goal met with all of these metrics being met or exceeded over the course of the year.

Goal: Post the menus and nutritional values of each meal on a white board in the Dining Room.
Metric: 100% of meals posted on the white board.
Result: Goal met.

Goal: Collaborate with Self-Advocacy to provide cooking demonstrations in the morning while guests wait for their visit to the food pantry.
Metric: 12 times per year, cooking demonstrations will happen in the Dining Room.
Result: Goal met.

Goal: Ensure that the Food Pantry is well stocked every day with a variety of nutritious foods.
Metric: 65% of all canned goods will be low in sodium.
Result: Goal met.

Goal: Have Food Pantry kiosk or sign up available for guests to schedule their Food Pantry visits.
Metric: 50% of guests will utilize the Food Pantry sign up which will alleviate crowding in the Sitting Room and Lobby.
Result: Goal in progress—We continue to teach guests how to use the kiosk system to make Pantry appointments. However, because this is a time and labor intensive goal for staff who must balance their time between being in the Pantry and the lobby—we now have an intern posted by the kiosk two mornings per week to help guests utilize it.

Goal: Provide efficient and effective service.
Metric: Make sure 100% of basic food pantry information is provided in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian/Creole, and Mandarin.
Result: Goal met.

Nutrition and Wellness:

• Our Wellness Center offers workshops on healthy eating and exercise throughout the year.

• Our Dining Room frequently has bulletin boards with colorful nutritional information. And along with nutritious groceries, our Pantry distributes healthy recipes written in several different languages.

• We work with Cooking Matters to offer monthly trips to a local grocery store for guests interested in learning more about how to plan healthy meals on a tight budget.

• This year we held 12 cooking demonstrations to show guests how to prepare healthy meals.

• Our Community Garden is maintained by a group of guests and the harvest is shared with other guests through the Dining Room and the Pantry.

• Through our Farm Initiative, Rosie’s Place partners with local farms to help place fresh fruits and vegetables onto the plates served in the Dining Room and onto the shelves of our choice Food Pantry. This year our partners include: Hope Central Church, Brookwood Farm, First Root Farm, Dewey Square Farmers’ Market, Volante Farm, Hutchins Farm, The Food Project, Belmont Day School, Land’s Sake Farm, Boston Gleaners, Canaan Farm and the Jamaica Plain Farmers’ Market. We anticipate receiving more than $30,000 worth of donated fresh produce this year alone.

Catering Program:
Our Volunteer Services department recruits and oversees groups of volunteers who cater a lunch or dinner in our Dining Room. Groups can cater a meal by making a $350 donation to underwrite the cost of the meal and then prepare the meal with our help in our kitchen—and serve it restaurant-style to our guests. In FY17, we raised $178,988 through our Catering Program.

Our ability to provide services in our own unique way relies on the fact that we depend solely on private donations. We do not accept any support from the city, state, or federal governments, nor from the United Way. The generous support we receive through GlobalGiving truly helps make our work possible. Our guests couldn’t manage without Rosie’s Place—and we couldn’t manage without friends like you all. Thank you.