“Throughout many changes in our history, our motto has remained the same: dignity is everything”
There’s no shortage of worthwhile causes to support. In Boston or anywhere else. Just the thought makes us a little dizzy. So much damn need out there.
But let us focus you for a moment, specifically on Women’s Lunch Place, which serves vulnerable women in Greater Boston on a number of fronts.
The 40th anniversary of their Spaghetti Dinner gala takes place on Oct. 21, and as they put it, “with women’s rights in jeopardy and food insecurity, addiction, and housing crises converging all at once, this is a critical time for our community.”
We asked Women’s Lunch Place Executive Director Jennifer Hanlon Wigon about the event, recent developments, and some other stuff as well. Including spaghetti …
In an organization that faces so much day-to-day strife, how much reflection has there been over there to actually look back on all you have accomplished over 40 years?
Women’s Lunch Place is an organization that prides itself on innovation and forward-thinking, and it has been a pleasure to look back at our last four decades of service in advance of our anniversary. WLP has expanded from a safe space offering breakfast and lunch three days a week to a full-service day shelter and advocacy center serving over 1,800 women annually in four service areas: healthy meals, direct care, advocacy, and wellness. Throughout many changes in our history, our motto has remained the same: dignity is everything. It has been especially rewarding to hear the testimonials from past guests, volunteers, donors, and leadership, who unilaterally speak about how much WLP has meant to them.
What are some of the major lessons learned over time that you have maybe passed on to smaller organizations serving similar populations that have come along the way?
Women experiencing homelessness are often overlooked. Among the most critical lessons that we have learned concern the gender-specific needs of vulnerable women, who have acute mental health, economic, and societal barriers to overcome. Women’s experience of homelessness is unique, and the most common pathway to homelessness for women is violence, often inclusive of childhood physical and sexual abuse.
There is a lack of existing research regarding homeless women, but existing studies confirm that they are more likely to hide from service providers. This is why we are a low-barrier shelter that does not require the disclosure of personal information before a woman can access services. WLP is a center of innovation and collaboration, and I am excited to serve on the newly organized National Women’s Shelter Network, which is a vehicle to share best practices and impact policy to support vulnerable women.
Needs can change in the community served by Women’s Lunch Place. What have been some changes in the past year or so, and what help from the community is needed to address those changes?
Substance use disorder and severe mental health issues have skyrocketed––documented in part, but not fully, in the reporting around Mass. and Cass. In recognition of these issues and in response to the steeped increase in demand for our services to respond to food insecurity and housing instability, WLP launched a Strategic Plan in September 2021. One of the core objectives of that plan was to codify Wellness programming as a specific service area and focus resources to address mental health, SUD, and isolation. We are partnering with Boston Medical Center and Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program to provide an array of on-site recovery programs, and we envision a robust and integrated women’s recovery center grounded in our guest-centered service model.
Last year, you served “a record number of meals (111,000+),” and saw a “66% increase in demand for our Advocacy services.” Has that trend continued along that trajectory?
It has, and while it is worrisome that food insecurity, grocery inflation, and the housing crisis are trending negatively, we are proud that we have continued to expand our programming to meet the increased need. Given our early numbers through August, we are already on pace to eclipse both our Healthy Meals (111,009) and Advocacy meeting (7,648) records, which were set last year.
Are there any signs of hope worth latching on to and tugging at? Any changes under the current administration in DC that have helped?
We are particularly optimistic about the work being done in the Mayor’s Office of Housing, led by Sheila Dillon and her talented team. There is a higher level of coordination across the service sector, both locally and nationally, which gives us hope that through sharing and codifying best practices, we can address the root causes of homelessness.
Emerging research, while limited in its lack of gender specificity, also gives us clear answers as to how to address many of these overarching problems. Housing First is clearly a winning strategy, but we now know that it must be followed by robust stabilization services. Otherwise, newly housed individuals may slide back into homelessness. This research, and our recognition of a gap in these services, has led us to launch a successful Housing Stabilization program at Women’s Lunch Place.
And finally, on a lighter note, tell us about the spaghetti dinner and why it’s important to get people together in person for this cause …
The Spaghetti Dinner started as a celebration of thanks for our incredible volunteer corps, held in the shelter’s basement dining room. That volunteer group now numbers over 400 individuals and 120 community and corporate groups.
Like our organization, Spaghetti Dinner has grown to reach new heights to celebrate our mission and raise funds that literally build the foundation upon which our future stands. We could not be more thrilled to welcome our supporters to the Fairmont Copley on October 21st for a dynamic event, where we will reflect on our history and look toward the growth of WLP as we continue to lean into our mission.
womenslunchplace.org/spaghetti-dinner
Dawn Martin is a Native Bostonian, Dawn enjoys living and playing in the city. Covering lifestyle, she enjoys writing about restaurants and what’s happening in the city she loves.