Providing healthy, homemade meals is only one of the ways Women’s Lunch Place (WLP) serves over 2,300 women in Boston. A non-profit homeless shelter and organization located on Newbury Street, they also provide healthcare, hygiene assistance, addiction recovery services, creative outlets and more.
“Dignity is everything” is the motto of the shelter that provides for women who are homeless, experiencing poverty and hungry. WLP offers numerous volunteer opportunities for high school students including delivering meals, being a meal program assistant, working at the welcome center and working in the resource center. Through these jobs, volunteers help with meal serving, help guests access shelter resources and provide women with information regarding legal issues, employment, education and medical care.
Allegra Marra, the director of corporate and volunteer engagement at WLP, has been working for the organization for seven years and said she has always enjoyed engaging with volunteers and specifically likes WLP because of its mission.
“I am very passionate about volunteer management, but also I love Women’s Lunch Place’s mission. I like the idea of a safe space for people that identify as women and having that community to combat loneliness,” Marra said. “It’s important to make a support system for women that might be experiencing hunger, poverty and food insecurity.”
Senior Tatiana Shrayer has been volunteering at WLP since her sophomore year. She started by volunteering in the kitchen, but she now volunteers once a week in the office, helping with paperwork and translating documents into Russian since she is fluent in the language.
Shrayer said that she has continued to volunteer at WLP because everyone who works there wants to be there and iscommitted to creating a unique and caring environment for the women who are in need of help.
“[WLP] is right on Newbury Street,” Shrayer said. “So you’re surrounded by all this wealth and commercial stores, but then there’s a homeless shelter, which I think is just really special because it shows how the workers at [WLP] can create such a great place for women.”
Senior Emma Lurie has volunteered at WLP as a kitchen assistant multiple times throughout high school. She said her most memorable experience was handing the women dessert while connecting with the guests and hearing their stories.
“Compared to other volunteer opportunities, I thought this was a better way to connect with the community more directly and actually see the people that I get to serve, the people that we are making the food for,” Lurie said.
Marra said one of the things that makes WLP unique is the gender-specific space and compared to similar organizations, the shelter makes it easy for women to get help.
“We have a very low barrier,” Marra said. “Women don’t have to give us any information about themselves when they come to Women’s Lunch Place. We take first names, but that’s really for numbers purposes. We’re not going to ask, ‘Where are you currently staying and do you have a job?’”
Shrayer is attending Boston College next year and plans to major in communications. She hopes to work for a non-profit in the future. She said her time at WLP and talking to the workers there influenced this goal.
“Everyone is there for a reason, which I really like. And I feel like even if I’m not actually seeing the women, I still feel connected to the purpose, and I’m happy to help in any way I can,” Shrayer said.
Lurie said becoming a WLP volunteer is straightforward, and she has brought her mom and friends to go with her. She recommends that students who want to volunteer should consider WLP.
“It’s just fulfilling and knowing that I’m helping people,” Lurie said. “It’s usually only for a few hours, so it’s not taking up a lot of my day, but it goes a long way for the people that we’re serving and helping.”
