Women’s Lunch Place Awarded Cummings Foundation Grant

Women’s Lunch Place (WLP) is one of 130 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 to $500,000 each through Cummings Foundation's $20 Million Grant Program. The Boston-based organization was chosen from a total of 738 applicants during a competitive review process.

Women’s Lunch Place is a safe, welcoming day shelter community providing healthy meals and individualized services for women experiencing homelessness and poverty.

“Women’s Lunch Place is so grateful for the Cummings Foundation’s investment to support innovative programming for women experiencing hunger, poverty and homelessness, and we are honored to be among the community of human service agencies they recognize as essential to providing dignity and security for our most vulnerable women,” says WLP Executive Director, Jennifer Hanlon Wigon.

Since their application to Cummings Foundation and the onslaught of COVID-19, WLP has witnessed their already-burdened guests struggle with increased isolation, hunger, insecure housing, and homelessness. WLP’s commitment to providing healthy meals and advocacy/case management services to 250 highly vulnerable women a day was complicated by the architecture of their day community space and private counseling offices. These logistical challenges required an emergency response and a restructuring of how, what, and where WLP’s services would be provided. WLP is proud that they were nimble and their pivot was immediate.

WLP continues to operate six days a week with essential frontline employees. 100% of their services are now offered as an Outreach Advocacy Initiative. The grant from Cummings Foundation will directly support services offered through this Outreach Advocacy Initiative, including:

• Advocacy/case management including legal aid and emergency financial assistance
• PPE, including: masks, hand and surface sanitizers, which provide guests with a measure of control to keep their personal environments clean
• Guest/client educational materials to explain the COVID-19 crisis
• Assistance regarding housing search, eviction prevention and public assistance benefits
• Healthy breakfasts and lunches with fruits and snacks, boxed for take-out
• Pantry boxes with food and supplies, delivered to provide stabilization services and encourage elder women and those with complex medical/mental health conditions who are housed and significantly at risk for a poor health outcome to shelter in place and avoid possible exposure

The Cummings $20 Million Grant Program supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate, Cummings Properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

"We have been impressed, but not surprised, by the myriad ways in which these 130 grant winners are serving their communities, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19," said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation's executive director. "Their ability to adapt and work with their constituents in new and meaningful ways has an enormous impact in the communities where our colleagues and leasing clients live and work."

Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $280 million to greater Boston nonprofits.

Social distancing requirements will prevent Foundation and grant winner representatives from convening for a reception at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn, as planned, to celebrate the $20 million infusion into greater Boston’s nonprofit sector. Instead, Cummings Foundation expects hundreds of individuals to gather virtually for a modified celebration in mid-June.

The Cummings $20 Million Grant Program resulted from a merger of the Foundation's two flagship grant programs, $100k for 100 and Sustaining Grants.

The Foundation and its volunteers first identified 130 organizations to receive grants of at least $100,000 each. Among the winners are first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that have previously received Cummings Foundation grants. A limited number of this latter group of repeat recipients will be invited to make in-person presentations in the fall, when public health related circumstances allow, proposing that their grants be elevated to long-term awards. Thirty such requests will be granted in the form of 10-year awards ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 each.

This year's diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. The nonprofits are spread across 40 different cities and towns, and most will receive their grants over two to five years.

The complete list of 130 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

A great deal more information about Cummings Foundation is detailed in Bill Cummings’ self-written business book, "Starting Small and Making It Big: Hands-On Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy." The brand-new, and significantly updated, 6th edition is available on Amazon or www.Cummings.com/book.

About Women’s Lunch Place

Women’s Lunch Place is a safe, welcoming day shelter community providing healthy meals and individualized services for women experiencing homelessness and poverty. Since 1982, WLP has been a dependable and compassionate provider of nutritious meals, critical support services, and advocacy assistance to women in need. They are located on Newbury Street in the heart of Boston and assist over 1,500 women a year. Visit womenslunchplace.org to learn more.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn, and Veterinary School at Tufts, LLC In North Grafton. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.