Celebrating Our Local Non-Profits
We’re so proud of our local community for coming together in a BIG way this past holiday season. Countless organizations across Massachusetts, and especially in Boston, rallied together throughout the past few months to help make lives better for families all around the city. These combined efforts made a big difference for many in need during the festive season. We’re celebrating our community and collective of local non-profit organizations this new year to inspire you to give back, all year long.
Greater Boston Food Bank
The Greater Boston Food Bank has worked tirelessly since 1974 to help end hunger throughout Eastern Massachusetts. The organization aims to provide three meals a day to those in need, year-round.
Throughout the holiday season, the Greater Boston Food Bank’s dedicated team launched the Hunger Free Holidays campaign to raise awareness and funds for the one in three Bostonians who are food insecure. With the support of Biogen Foundation and Stop & Shop, the organization helped raise money to provide healthy holiday meals to neighbors in need.
Donations made during the holidays helped support a number of Greater Boston Food Bank initiatives like holiday meals, family meal boxes, grocery cards, and more.
Project Bread
Project Bread is a Massachusetts non-profit that helps connect people and communities in the state to reliable sources of food. All the while, the non-profit helps advocate for policies that make food more accessible – so no one goes hungry. Project Bread helps prevent hunger by making it easier for people to access food with dignity.
During the holidays, Project Bread and others matched donations made to the non-profit to help support their food programs. In addition, the organization tracked food resources statewide to help families and those in need find a warm meal during the holiday season. Many of these places were open to any and all who needed a minute to grab a bite.
Pine Street Inn
Pine Street Inn helps homeless individuals move from the streets to a home. This non-profit also helps formerly homeless individuals retain housing. Pine Street Inn assists with outreach, emergency services, supportive housing, job training, and employment connections. Our Quebrada Baking Co. family has been proudly donating food to Pine Street Inn for many years!
This past holiday season, Pine Street Inn gave back to the community in a number of different ways. Each person at one of Pine Street’s shelters received a present to unwrap on Christmas Eve, and donations from the public helped provide for these gifts in a special holiday gesture.
Community Servings – Food Heals
Community Servings – Food Heals engages the community to provide scratch-made medically tailored meals to individuals and their families experiencing critical or chronic illness and nutrition insecurity.
For the past few years, Quebrada has been partnering with Community Servings to bake and donate pies for a program called Pie in the Sky. For every pie sold, Community Servings provides a week's worth of meals to a nutrition-insecure neighbor in need. It’s come to be known as the “World’s Greatest Bake Sale.” Last year, the event raised nearly $1 million for those in need!
Friends of Boston’s Homeless
Friends of Boston’s Homeless bridges the gap and helps people who struggle on the streets and in shelters move to safe, stable housing. The nonprofit connects those they help with vital services and opportunities to assist them in rebuilding their lives.
This past Christmas, Friends of Boston’s Homeless campaigned to buy 31 new beds by December 31st to help those who live on the streets. Donations toward a new bed, a fresh set of sheets, a soft pillow or a cozy comforter help make a house a home for people transitioning beyond homelessness – many for the first time in their lives.
Arlington EATS
Since 1991, Arlington EATS has worked within Arlington to provide sufficient and nutritious food to those in need – as well as help end food insecurity. Last year, just in time for the holiday season, the organization opened its first permanent location on Broadway in Arlington.
Today, Arlington EATS distributes more than 10,000 pounds of food to more than 270 households each week. Once they opened, Arlington EATS hurried to fill their shelves with nutritious food for the holidays. The organization collected foods to help warm up neighbors – like soup, coffee, tea, hot cocoa mix, and all kinds of oatmeal.
Rosie’s Place
Rosie’s Place was first founded in 1974 as a women-only shelter. It’s a safe place for poor and homeless women to get a warm bed and a meal in Boston. Since then, it’s blossomed into a community center that provides a wide range of support, from education to outreach services. The organization helps more than 12,000 people a year. At Quebrada, we have long donated to Rosie’s Place to help support the excellent work they do.
The Season of Giving
Giving back to the community enriches your life and connects you to the people around you – and your neighborhood. Taking time to help others can have a positive effect on your own life as well as others’ lives.
The Greater Boston community is so lucky to have these organizations on their side, helping make their slice of the world a better place for everyone. The holidays aren’t the only time to give back. If this post inspired you to give your time or money to one of these organizations, don’t hesitate to follow the link to their websites and learn how you can make a difference all year long!