Meals for Poor & Homeless Women & their Children

Rosie's Place's 
Report on Food Programs for Fall 2019
November 2019

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.

For the women of Rosie's Place, food insecurity can be life-changing or even life-threatening. When we look at who participates in our Food Programs we see: elderly women who do not want to choose between paying for their prescriptions or eating dinner; young mothers with their children looking to subsidize their limited income with no cost, healthy meals; and chronically ill women where success is often just walking through our doors and sharing in a meal. At Rosie's Place, we know that to reduce hunger, poverty and homelessness in our community, we must actively respond to these challenges and find innovative solutions. Through our Food Programs we are doing just that.                 

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, 2019 through September 30, 2019:

• 5,983 weekday breakfasts were served.
• 2,034 weekend brunches were served.
• 8,795 lunches were served.
• 8,692 dinners were served.
• This is a total of 25,504 nutritious meals.

From July 1, 2019 through September 30, 2019:

• Rosie’s Place’s Pantry welcomed 6,707 visits.

Below is the progress made on our FY2020 Goals for Rosie's Place's Food Programs in our first quarter:

Goal: Maintain the nutritional standards of meals served—based on the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for a 2,000 calorie daily diet. 
Metrics:
*  75% of meals will contain less than 10% of calories from added sugars 
*  75% of meals will contain less than 10% of calories from saturated fats 
*  75% of meals will contain less than 2,300mg of sodium 
*  100% of meals will contain one serving of fruit 
*  90% of lunches and dinners will contain 3 servings of vegetables 
*  80% of meals will contain 50 grams of protein 
Results: Goal met, with all of these metrics being met or exceeded.

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

Goal: Ensure that food offered through the Food Pantry meets the USDA’s nutritional guidelines. 
Metric: 65% of all canned goods will be low in sodium. 
Results: Goal met.

Goal: Provide nutrition education and recipes to the guests. 
Metrics:
*  1 new nutritional fact sheet will be posted on the bulletin board each month. 
*  Food is labeled in the Food Pantry to help with certain medical conditions 100% of the time. 
*  1 recipe with the nutritional facts will be made available at the Food Pantry bulletin board. 
*  There will be 12 demonstrations scheduled over the year, one per month. 
        
Results: Goal in progress. Recipes have been translated into Spanish and French. We are in the process of creating food labels and we have posted recipes on the bulletin board that include nutritional information. Lastly, we have held three cooking demonstrations.

Recent Program Highlights:

• Health and Wellness: At Rosie’s Place, we take care to offer our guests healthy recipes and information about nutrition and wellness. Our Dining Room frequently has bulletin boards with colorful nutritional information. Located next to our Dining Room—our Wellness Center is staffed by our partners: Boston Health Care for the Homeless, Health Care Without Walls and Regis College School of Nursing in order for us to provide the most comprehensive medical services we can. The Center regularly offers workshops on healthy eating and general wellness topics.
  
  
• 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.

• Throughout the year, we strive to ensure that the Dining Room is a warm and fun place for our community. Every month our birthday board fills with the names of guests who will be celebrating a birthday. So that once a month, we celebrate these guests collectively, with cake and small gifts.

• We also regularly welcome musical performances from: a local pianist who entertains guests monthly at dinner time and a host of local college acapella and musical groups who visit throughout the year.

Food brings people together—especially at Rosie’s Place. Our Dining Room and Food Pantry programs bring volunteers, guests and staff together, fostering a sense of security and community so that our guests can connect to the services they need. Thank you for supporting this critical work.

Report on Food Programs for Fiscal Year 2019
July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019

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.

We are proud of what—together—we have accomplished in our Food Programs this past year:

From July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019:

• A total of 103,779 nutritious meals were served in our Dining Room. 

• A remarkable 81% of these lunches and dinners were underwritten through our Catering Program, raising $195,367for our Food Programs. 

• Rosie’s Place’s Pantry welcomed 24,104visits. Guests aged 65 years old and older accounted for 10,997 of these visits. In total, there was an average of 2,008 visits per month. 

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

Goal: Maintain the nutritional value of 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 meals will contain less than 10% of calories from added sugars

Metric: 75% of meals will contain less than 10% of calories from saturated fats

Metric: 75% of meals will contain less than 2,300mg of sodium

Metric: 98% of meals will contain one serving of fruit

Metric: 85% of lunches and dinners will contain 3 servings of vegetables

Metric: 80% of meals will contain 6oz of grains (3oz whole and 3oz refined)

Metric: 80% of meals will contain 5 ½ oz of protein

Results: Goal met with all of these metrics being met and exceeded over the course of the year.

96% of meals contained less than 10% of calories from added sugars

99% of meals contained less than 10% of calories from saturated fats      

92% of meals contained less than 2,300mg of sodium

100% of meals contained one serving of fruit

98% of lunches and dinners contained 3 servings of vegetables

94% of meals contained 6oz of grains (3oz whole and 3oz refined)

100% of meals contained 5 ½ oz of protein

Goal: Ensure that the Pantry is well stocked every day with a variety of nutritious foods.

Metric: 65% of all canned goods will be low in sodium.

Metric: Gluten-free, allergy-sensitive and low-sugar items will be available daily.

Metric: Low-sugar options will be available in our snack section every day.

Goal in process: While low-sugar options have been available every day, approximately 50% of our canned goods were low in sodium. This can be attributed to the limited inventory of such items at the Greater Boston Food Bank. We will continue seeking other outlets for low-sodium canned goods.

Goal: Provide efficient and effective service.

Metric: Make sure 100% of basic Pantry information is provided in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian/Creole, and Mandarin.

Goal met.

Goal: Provide nutrition education and recipes to guests.

Metric: 1 new nutritional fact sheet will be posted on the bulletin board each month.

Metric: 1 recipe with the nutritional facts will be given out in the bags monthly.

Goal modified and met—so that recipes are available, in 5 different languages, in bins next to the bulletin board, rather than placed in bags.

Goal: Volunteers will teach guests about healthy cooking through demonstrations.    

Metric: Twice a month we will have volunteers use items available in the pantry to prepare a nutritious sample for guests.

Metric: Recipes and nutritional benefits will be provided to each guest getting a sample in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian/Creole, and Mandarin.

Goal met. The demonstrations feature healthy and easy-to-cook meals made with foods commonly found in the Food Pantry.

Goal: Our Community Garden will be maintained by guests.

Metric: At least 5 guests will help maintain the garden throughout the growing season.

Metric: We will provide guests with recipes using and information about the produce grown in the Community Garden.

Goal in process, with 3 guests volunteering in our Garden, thus far this summer. Garden-centered recipes have been distributed to guests. 

Program Highlights:

• Our annual dinner party to commemorate what would have been founder Kip Tiernan’s 93^rd birthday was held on June 17th in our Dining Room. There was music and dancing and our Board of Directors served Kip’s favorite meal, Southern BBQ, to our guests.  

• Throughout the year, we strive to ensure that the Dining Room is a warm and fun place for our community. Every month our birthday board fills with the names of guests who will be celebrating a birthday. So that once a month, we celebrate these guests collectively, with cake and small gifts.

• We also regularly welcome musical performances from: a local pianist who entertains guests monthly at dinner time and a host of local college acapella and musical groups who visit throughout the year.

• In May, our friends from The Food Project came and helped us plant our Community Garden. A group of energetic volunteers brought yards of compost and soil and planted dozens of plants.

• We continue to partner with Cooking Matters. Every month, 16 guests participate in a one-hour class on healthy and cost-effective shopping. Classes are offered in both English and Spanish.

• 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 for our guests to take home to their families. This produce is all too often a luxury for our guests and the only fresh fruit or vegetables they will have. Our partners include: AmazonPrime, Boston University Food Rescue Committee, 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, Canann Farm and the Jamaica Plain Farmers’ Market. This year, we anticipate receiving more than $30,000 worth of donated fresh produce.

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.