Bread of Life impact in 2018 Bread of Life distributed 1 million meals, helping stop hunger right here at home. BOL helps local families, senior citizens and individuals who are struggling financially put food on the table so they don’t have to choose between eating and paying for the other essentials of living. Our Malden Food Pantry (serving 10 communities) • 544,000 meal-equivalents as groceries • 1,400 households • 4,300 men, women and children • 24,400 total number of visits • Located at 54 Eastern Avenue, Malden • Open Wednesday (4-6 pm) and Friday (2-4 pm) • Receive groceries once per month • Serves neighbors from Malden (60%), Everett (31%), Medford (6%), Melrose (2%), and the remainder are from Stoneham, Saugus, Wakefield, Reading, North Reading and Winchester. Our Everett Food Pantry • 101,000 meal-equivalents as groceries • 500 households • 1,400 men, women and children • 5,200 total number of visits • Located at Everett City Hall, 484 Broadway, Ground floor • Open every 3rd and 4th Thursday of the month (3-5 pm) • Receive groceries once per month • Serves residents of Everett only • Operated through a grant from the City of Everett, Mayor’s Office and Office of Community Development Bessie is one of the 1,200 senior citizens for whom we provide free groceries during the year through our Malden and Everett food pantries. A low-income widow living alone, she finds the need to come to our pantry several times a year when things get tight. Since she uses a walker, this isn't easy for her but she has no choice. According to a survey commissioned by the AARP Foundation, approximately one-third of older adults said they cut the size of meals or skipped meals because they did not have enough money to buy food. Our Senior Nutrition Outreach • 250,000 meal-equivalents as groceries • 700 vulnerable, low-income seniors living in 13 subsidized housing complexes in Malden, Everett, Melrose and Medford • Monthly free grocery order delivery of fresh fruit & produce, canned & dry goods • Operated in partnership with Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) Our Homeless Families Motel Meals Outreach • 15,000 meals as prepared meals and groceries • 80 prepared meals per week • 63 bags of groceries per week • 20 families on average at 3 motels • Community partners include Anthony’s of Malden, Bobby C’s of Melrose, Cheverus School of Malden and Community Cooks of Somerville • Children’s clothing, diapers, baby wipes, formula and baby food • Advocacy & referrals to connect families with housing, education, employment, health, nutrition and school services. • Assisting some of the last homeless families in the Commonwealth still to be sheltered in motels A family was burned out of their house the week before Thanksgiving and became homeless. A social worker from Hallmark Health called the BOL office looking for help for them. This family of seven – two adults and five kids – were living in a hotel on Route 1 to which BOL had never delivered food. The worker asked if we could help them with food, especially with Thanksgiving coming up. They had no food and no car. They did not speak English. We immediately assured her we would deliver meals to the family since BOL delivers hundreds of meals on Thanksgiving Day to elderly, disabled and homeless people. About ten minutes later, the manager of the hotel called to say they had another family that had also been burned out. “Can you add eight more meals to your delivery?” she asked. These parents had six kids, including a newborn, and the mother had just lost her sister. “My heart is breaking for these families,” the manager said. “We don’t realize how good we have it!” She was so happy BOL would be able to deliver the food. “This is such a great thing you do. What a wonderful organization!" We have continued to deliver to these and new families being sheltered in this motel. Our Teen Outreach program • 6,000 meal-equivalents as prepared meals and groceries • Snacks such as fresh fruit, cheese & crackers, and power bars • 80 at-risk teens per week at the Malden Teen Enrichment Center (MTEC) Our Food Access Project • Goals: o improve access of immigrant and non-native English-speaking populations to BOL services and volunteer opportunities; o improve BOL provision of nutritious & culturally-appropriate foods; o empower populations being served. • Food Access Committee of volunteers includes speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, French, Haitian Creole, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese • Routine translation of various programmatic flyers and brochures into the five most frequently used languages amongst our pantry patrons and volunteers: Chinese (traditional), Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic • Interpreting services for food pantry applicants, members and volunteers • Recruited, trained, supervised new volunteers in the office/pantry • Initiated posting and distribution of nutrition education and food safety information in multiple languages • Do ongoing face-to-face interviews with pantry members to learn about their food wants and needs, barriers to food access, and opinions on BOL services • Solicit food, book and school supply donations • Market our programs in multiple languages using social media, email, newspapers, posters • Distributed flyers in multiple languages in local neighborhoods • Operated weekly English and Mandarin classes taught by volunteers Our Meals Program • 47,000 meals as evening meals, lunches, snacks • 30 - 50 people per evening • 50 - 100 meals per evening with second helpings and take- out meals • 4 nights per week, Tuesday through Friday, 5:30-6:30 pm • 450 volunteers from our 45 Partner Organizations and the broader community • Provide opprotunity to link people to additional resources such as the new Malden Warming Center, other shelter and housing opportunities, healthcare, fuel assistance and SNAP benefits • Dinners on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day at Malden High School, providing about 900 meals at each, including 300-400 meals delivered to the elderly Meal site dislocations: We continue to have issues with maintaining the stability of our meal sites because we have to rent facilities. In early 2018, the American Legion building on Pleasant Street - where we had been serving our meal every Wednesday and Thursday - was sold. For several weeks we served the meal out of our van parked in front of the American Legion until we found an alternate meal site. On April 11, 2018 we partnered with the Salvation Army at 213 Main Street, leasing their kitchen and dining hall for our meal every Wednesday and Thursday. In November, they experienced a devastating flood requiring major renovations and we were again without a meal site. For several weeks we served the meal out of the foyer of our office until we found an alternate meal site. On December 18, 2018 we partnered with the First Baptist Church, corner of Salem & Main Streets, which has been donating the Friday meal site for years, to serve all four of our weekly evening meals at their facility. BOL empowers individuals and families by offering them volunteer opportunities with our meals or pantry so they can give back to the community while developing skills useful for future employment and goals: • Community Service volunteer opportunities for hundreds of students during the course of a year from Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, the Malden K-8 schools, Malden High School, Malden Catholic High School, Arlington Catholic and others. • Weekly afterschool enrichment program for the Malden Public Schools 6-8 Afterschool Program. Students in grades 6, 7, and 8 who sign up for the program from the Beebe, Forestdale, Linden, and Salemwood Schools come in on a rotating basis for an hour and make sandwiches, salad, fruit salad, smoothies, etc. to be distributed at the evening meal. • Work site every Thursday afternoon for Malden High School Transition Program students. Supervised by their instructor and our staff, they practice job skills volunteering in our food pantry and office. • Weekly Day Services volunteer site in our food pantry for six or so disabled adults who participate in the TILL Day Services program out of Chelsea, MA. BOL works with community agencies to connect people with other vital services, such as job training, educational opportunities, low-cost housing, healthcare and clothing. We host the monthly Tri-City Hunger Network meeting of emergency food pantries & programs, partnering with the GBFB and Project Bread/The Walk for Hunger. We also host the monthly meetings of the newly formed Malden Food Assessment Advisory Group bringing together about two dozen agencies. Highlights of 2018: January: Big Blue World band donated sales from release of their new album "Agitate d'Love." Our board member Chris Chitouras is a member of the band. February: Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church volunteers donated school vacation food bags for the 4th year in a row, coordinated by Kathy Foulser, for the homeless families sheltered in motels. March: A 3rd Grade Class at the Linden STEAM Academy in Malden donated cans of soup for neighbors in need, coordinated by teacher Mary Jane McDonagh. Stop & Shop Store #62 on Charles Street in Malden held their annual "Food For Friends" campaign" during the holiday season, raising $1,729.20 for BOL. Special thanks to Roy Foster, Store Manager. April: Easter Sunday Dinner April 1st provided a special meal for 130 people who are homeless or who would have been alone. Thanks to Marty Murphy/ Marty's Caterers in Stoneham and Hoff's Bakery in Malden who donated food, and to Tom Feagley and our wonderful volunteers for this event! Beer + Bites April 7th benefit sponsored by Melrose Highlands Congregational Church raised $5,000 for the BOL Building Fund. Salvation Army in Malden partnered with BOL to provide Wednesday & Thursday meal site beginning April 11th.