Our Meals Program, with its hearty breakfasts and lunches, is the hub of our services. For many Guests, the Women's Lunch Place is their primary source of food and good nutrition. Many days, a woman will tell the staff she has not eaten since she had lunch the previous day at the Women's Lunch Place. Wholesome food is a luxury that most of our women cannot afford. Our homeless Guests have no access to a kitchen or any type of food storage. Their only other options may be fast or prepared foods that is high in fat, sugar, and salt. Prepared foods are generally unhealthy, cumulatively expensive, and can contribute significantly to poor nutrition. In combination with stress and fatigue, insufficient nutrition increases a woman's susceptibility to illness and leads to poor health.
In addition, our Advocacy Program continues to assist our Guests with various types of concerns and attempts to break down the various barriers that many poor and homeless women face each day. We are able to establish relationships of trust with women in need. Services are provided in a non-judgmental manner and Guests are always allowed to make their own choices regarding their lives. Advocacy staff members assist women with an extensive range of needs. They help women access shelters, housing, emergency medical and mental health care, detoxification and longer-term substance abuse treatment programs, and provide emotional support and counseling.
The Women's Lunch Place (WLP) was the brainchild of Jane Alexander and Eileen Reilly, two visionaries with an interminable sense of resolve. Distraught by the overwhelming needs of the women they encountered when they met in the 1980s, they dreamed of creating a place to offer poor and homeless women with nutritious, home-cooked meals and a place to call home during the day. At the time, few resources existed specifically for this population. Homelessness was on the rise due to changes in the state's mental healthcare system. After securing space in the basement of the Church of the Covenant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, the Women's Lunch Place served its first lunch to twelve women on November 15, 1982. Initially, the shelter was open just three afternoons a week. However as word spread like wildfire through the streets of Boston, the need for additional services soon became apparent. In 1984, we added a fourth day of services and a fifth in 1986. By 1996, we were open six days a week. Our Advocacy and Legal Assistance Program began in 1995. To further meet the growing demand for advocacy services, we added a Resource Center in 2003. Guests may use the Resource Center to search for housing, employment, or to handle their personal affairs. In 2005, we hired a full-time cook in order to provide guests with consistently healthy and wholesome meals.
Mission: The Women's Lunch Place provides a safe, comfortable daytime shelter, nutritious food, and services for women who are homeless or poor. We treat women with dignity and respect and foster a community committed to meeting each woman's needs.
Core Values: 1). We believe no individual should have to be hungry or homeless. 2). We believe all human beings should be treated with dignity and respect. 3). We meet each woman where she is, and we base and adjust our services according to her needs. 4). We offer our services in a gracious, comfortable and safe environment, offering both physical and emotional sustenance. 5). We create a community of understanding and acceptance among guests, staff, volunteers and board members.
Our overall program goals are simple: to meet each woman where she is at, provide her with the opportunity to fulfill her basic needs, allow her to be heard, and then respond with kindness and respect. This program philosophy is essential for individuals who have been misunderstood, abused, or abandoned. Those who are homeless or poor find few people to hear or validate their experiences. As a result of the women engaging with the Women's Lunch Place community, they have grown to trust those they meet here. From this foundation of respect and trust, women begin to recover their self-worth and find the courage to look ahead.
Name of Organization:The Women's Lunch Place
Number of Paid Staff:13 Full time
Number of Volunteers:385
Total Organizational Expenses:$1,895,227
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:24%
The mission of the Women’s Lunch Place is powerful in that we treat women with dignity and respect and will meet each woman where she is in order to fulfill her basic needs. In addition to our Meals and Advocacy Programs, we also provide other Guests Services including a Creative Expression Program which provides opportunities for the women to express themselves through art, music, drama, and dance. We hope the Creative Expression Program will provide women many creative outlets and encourage expression. This program at the Women's Lunch Place fosters those vital connections and improves many Guests' self-image and self-esteem. The Women's Lunch Place also offers outings for Guests. We usually have at least two per month. Outings offer chances to participate in the social and cultural environment of the greater Boston area. Over the past year, the women have gone to various museums, movies, concerts, and enjoyed ice-skating and apple-picking.
One of our Guests, who is HIV+ and suffers from mental illness, paid the WLP a lovely compliment. She talked about how she had gone to different programs in the past but never felt respected. She said that she loved coming to the WLP because we always seemed to be happy to serve the Guests and that we had the best food in town! Several women, mostly older, have gone from being computer illiterate to being able to use email and now have basic computer skills. Thanks to learning new skills on the computer, one woman learned that her estranged 19-year-old daughter is not only alive, but starting college in the fall and working hard.
Hunger & Nutrition
Poverty
We currently have about 385 active volunteers who help staff the Women’s Lunch Place in a variety of ways. We could not run our kitchen or program without the daily support from individual and group volunteers. For group opportunities, we enjoy brainstorming ideas customized for your group. Some of the events we have had in the past are: Participating in a clean-up day at our facility, helping us sells and write cards for our Mother’s Day campaign, offering a workshop in creative arts, life training, or stress management, conducting a drive tailored to the season or specific needs, hosting a waffle breakfast, hosting Saturday BINGO! Individuals can sign up to volunteer on our website. There is no limit to how much or little you can volunteer. We will work with your busy schedule. We will meet with you individually to understand where and how and how often you can volunteer so that we can meet our needs and you can have a rewarding experience. Those who are interested in volunteering and are under the age of 18 must speak to our volunteer manager with their parent/guardian.
Name:Cassie Walch
Title:Development and Communications Coordinator
Address:67 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116
Telephone:617-267-1722
Email:cassie@womenslunchplace.org
Website:www.womenslunchplace.org