Meals for Poor & Homeless Women & their Children

Rosie’s Place Food Program Winter 2026 Update

At Rosie’s Place we serve several under-resourced, vulnerable populations. All of our guests are poor. Some are homeless, while many others work and live in housing but simply can’t make ends meet. We serve women as young as 18 and as old as 80, from across the Greater Boston area. Senior citizens are particularly susceptible to food insecurity, which is why guests over 62 years of age can visit our Food Pantry twice a week. Over the past four years, we have had a consistent increase in the number of older women coming to the Food Pantry for help with groceries at Rosie’s Place. This past year, we served 2,949 women ages 65 and up—a 54% increase over the past four years—and while women 65 years old and up make up only one third of the total guests served through the Food Pantry, they represent 53% of the total visits.

Rosie’s Place removes barriers to services so that women in our community have access to all of the things needed to live well: nutritious food, stable housing, quality healthcare, mental health and recovery support, legal services, employment, education, and more. Many guests are introduced to the full range of our services when they come to us for food, meaning your support for the Food Programs can lead to so much more in a woman’s life.

The past several months have been especially challenging for women and families and organizations striving to meet unprecedented food and nutrition needs. Cuts to social benefit programs, the freezing and then release of SNAP benefits, and fears around 2026 changes to SNAP requirements are creating new levels of mental and emotional stress for women already living paycheck to paycheck.

From July - September, we served 29% more meals (56k+ meals in total) than we did during the same time last year.  We also had over 20,000 visits to our Food Pantry. There is a critical need for food and essential services right now. Rosie's Place is committed to being a steadfast source of nourishment, stability, and hope for thousands of women each year. We would not be able to step up and meet these growing needs, were it not for your generous support. Thank you for choosing to help Rosie’s Place through the GlobalGiving Foundation.

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The Dining Room is the heart of Rosie’s Place and welcomes any woman and her children in need of a meal, 365 days of the year. Over the past year, Rosie’s Place served 187,000 meals, a 23% increase from the previous year and an average of 500+ meals a day. We have seen 2,473 volunteers walk through our doors, giving 14,547 hours of time, preparing, cooking and serving meals, and cleaning in the Dining Room.

In the Food Pantry, we are providing a variety of nutritionally balanced groceries, including variations for those with dietary needs, for up to 350 women daily. We rotate proteins and provide foods from a variety of ethnic cuisines. Guests are welcome to visit the Pantry weekly, and we are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. until we are out of food or have served 350 women. In the past year, our Food Pantry provided groceries to 8,890 women, a 7% increase over the year prior. We served an average of more than 323 women a day, accommodating 78,256 visits in FY25, a 6% increase from FY24. Our farm partners—Brookwood, Hutchins, Lands Sake, and BMC Rooftop Farm—provided fresh produce for our pantry shoppers. We continue to receive additional support through Reverb, an organization that coordinates volunteer drives to pick up produce at farms and deliver it to non-profits.

Our staff work hard to enhance guests’ experience in the Food Program. We regularly celebrate holidays with special meals in the Dining Room, and last year Rosie’s Place hosted its first gingerbread cookie decoration contest. We bring in DJs for special occasions and celebrate guests’ birthdays once a month. This winter, staff started a book club that was inspired by the free library located in the Dining Room. In the Food Pantry, we periodically distribute non-food items—approximately 20,000 this past year—from holiday gifts of blankets, hats, gloves, scarves and gift cards, as well as recipes, resources guides, and announcements of upcoming events.

The Food Program does more than prevent hunger: at Rosie’s Place it helps us provide nourishment, love, and community for our guests, and we use the Dining Room space for all these things. From meeting our guests’ urgent, basic needs to pausing for laughter and connection, we could not do this work without friends like you. Thank you for choosing to support Rosie’s Place through the GlobalGiving Foundation. We are grateful for your generosity and commitment to our work.