1. FRIENDS OF BOSTON’S HOMELESS COMMUNITY MEALS PROGRAM
Decision needed by: Community Meals Program sponsorship is ongoing
Event date: Date(s) can be selected by Darden
Organization name: Friends of Boston’s Homeless
501(c)(3): Yes
EIN#: 22-2866770
Address: 12 Wise St, Boston, MA 02130
Program/event name: Community Meals Program
Program/event date: Date(s) can be selected by Darden
Name/title of contact: Mariann Bucina Roca, Executive Director
Phone/best times to call: (617) 942-8671
1. Please briefly explain your organization’s mission and goals, and how your organization is
working to achieve them in our community.
Founded in 1987, Friends of Boston's Homeless supports innovative, solution-oriented
programs that help our community’s homeless move beyond shelter to live independent
lives. Friends works in a unique public/private partnership with Boston Public Health
Commission's Homeless Services shelters (Woods Mullen Shelter in the South End and the
newly opened Southampton Shelter in South Boston) and programs to achieve this. The
programs and services offered provide the fundamental needs of basic shelter (a bed,
shower and food), comprehensive supportive services (including basic health as well as
mental healthcare, individual case management, and substance abuse treatment and
counseling), the Housing First Programs, adult education, job training, work experience and
employment services, life skills development, and transitional and permanent affordable
housing for over 800 homeless individuals every day. These vital programs and service help
more than 400 people each year move beyond shelter and independence.
2. Please detail your program or event as specifically as possible, including the objective,
beneficiaries and expected outcome.
The Community Meals Program brings together members of the community to make a
difference in the lives of our community’s homeless by sponsoring and serving hot,
nutritious meals to the homeless individuals at our Boston area shelters (Woods Mullen and
Southampton Street). The shelter’s kitchen serves three meals a day, 365 days a year to over
800 homeless individuals, for a total of 766,000 meals annually. The Community Meals

2. Sponsorship Program is vital to helping ensure some of our community’s most vulnerable
residents receive nutritious and delicious food every day of the year.
Members of the community take an active part in this effort by coming together to sponsor
and serve meals to the homeless guests at both Woods Mullen and Southampton Street
Shelters. Participating groups of up to six people select the date they’d like to serve a meal
and the meal they’d like to sponsor. Once the group has selected their date and meal, they
then come to the shelter to serve, help with clean up, visit with the guests, and also often
organize a recreational activity like BINGO.
In operation for over 25 years, The Community Meals Program continues to enlist new
sponsors, many of whom sponsor meals several times a year. Churches, synagogues,
schools, civic organizations, local businesses, corporations and even groups of friends and
family make up the groups now numbering over 50 in total. With the sponsoring groups
paying for the meals, Southampton Street and Woods Mullen shelters are able to use the
funds otherwise allocated to the meals program for other vital services and programs. This
in turn allows the kitchen the ability to serve special meals that would normally be
prohibited by cost.
One of the most important aspects of The Community Meals Program, however, is the
opportunity for community interaction with homeless individuals. This is a meaningful and
impactful opportunity for group members (employees, members of a church, students and
teachers) to interact with our guests and gain a personal sense of reward in making a
tangible difference in someone's well-being. Most important, by serving these individuals
the community effectively opens itself up and shows our homeless guests they are cared for
and remembered. This critical step of communication of human compassion and kinship
serves to reaffirm the sense of dignity and self-esteem in hundreds of people's lives; an
attribute so needed and crucial to a successful move beyond homelessness to
independence.
How are you seeking support from a Darden restaurant? Please be as specific as possible. For
example, 10 employees to volunteer on a Saturday, a $25 gift card for a silent auction, salad
for 20 people, and all supporting details.
Friends of Boston's Homeless is seeking a $1,000 gift to sponsor and serve one or two
delicious meals at the shelter of your choice (Both Woods Mullen and the Southampton
Street Shelters are less than a 10 minute walk from The Olive Garden in South Bay) on the
date(s) of your choice. The Community Meals Program menu is included with this request.
3. How have you partnered with or received support from a Darden restaurant or its employees
in the past? Please include all donations, board membership, volunteerism or sponsorship
history.
Not yet, but we hope to soon!
4. How will you report and publicize the success of your event or program with us? With other
partners and members of the community?

3. Darden employees will see the success of their efforts first hand by selecting the meal(s)
they sponsor and by joining us at the shelter to serve what they’ve selected. We will
publicize Darden’s support of the Community Meals program through our social media
outlets, where we have 1,500 following on Facebook, over 4,000 followers on Twitter in
addition to a presence on Flickr and Pinterest. We will also acknowledge Darden’s support
on the “Community Partners” page of our website (fobh.org), in our e-newsletter and in the
program of our annual Beyond Shelter gala.