Restaurant Worker Mutual Aid of Greater Boston

05/06/2021

Thank you, Kendall Square Association for highlighting our work, and to our KSq. community members for supporting us in this journey.

Our series continues with Alex Gladwell, a furloughed restaurant worker saw food insecurity amongst her fellow industry workers as something to solve. Learn about her and her nonprofit Restaurant Worker Mutual Aid of Greater Boston: http://ow.ly/HZ8k50EGBkH

04/09/2021

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, state Rep. Brandy Fluker-Oakley, and Boston City Councillor Lydia Edwards expressed support for a minimum wage for tipped workers at a virtual Women’s History month event held on March 26. “Massachusetts Women Workers Rising: Building a Path Forward Together” was...

03/20/2021

This week marked one year of food distribution that would evolve into RWMA.

While saying “happy anniversary RWMA” doesn’t feel quite fitting, given the nature of our work, we do indeed have a lot to celebrate. This work is a beautiful example of what can be accomplished when a community comes together.

A year ago we began delivering to 10 households in response to the immediate closure of MA restaurants and the imminent anticipation of hunger and food insecurity. 52 weeks later and we are currently serving 76 households weekly (194 adults and 154 children). As of this week, we have delivered to a total of 3,253 households. That is food provided for 8,317 adults and 6,321 children over the course of the year.

And while we are hesitant to the idea of a one-year celebration, we truly do have many remarkable things to revel in. Here are a few:

· Funding: While we were recipients of a few grants (Thank you New England Grassroots Environment Fund and ), over 95% of funding for the purchase of food and baby care needs have been from individual donors. The fact that we are not an official 501(c)3 non-profit, and therefore don’t offer tax exemptions, makes this all that more remarkable. Only one week over the course of the year did we lack sufficient funds.

· Connection to businesses: Our Kendall Square neighbors at Brothers Marketplace - Cambridge have continued to provide space for a food donation bin; For the past 11 months, we have been able to acquire bread (and often dessert and breakfast items) from Whole Foods Market Newtonville; And the restaurant patrons of Za Arlington have yet to seize to amaze us with their routine generous donations of food and baby care items

· Partnerships: We were planted a garden by Cambridge City Growers, providing additional produce to be distributed. And it is just about planting season again! Our friends at Community Servings connected us with the food rescue organization Lovin' Spoonfuls. During the growing season they delivered us incredible weekly farm fresh produce from Fire Farm (all the way up until December!). We continue to receive weekly food rescue items from them every Thursday (our most exciting time of the week!). In just the first four months of our partnership, beginning in September 2020, we “received 2,796 lb of rescued food from Lovin' Spoonfuls- enough for 2,237 meals- for people facing food-insecurity”. Simply incredible.

· Volunteers: None of this would be possible without the dedication team of volunteers, packing and delivering groceries/resources to our members every week. The fact that we are 100% volunteer run is something surely to celebrate.

And while we do have a lot to celebrate, we also must remain diligent and purposeful in our work. The past 52 weeks has brought routine, but the reality remains that our community is still very much hurting. Each and every week, looking around our workspace that is Abigail's Restaurant, everywhere is a reminder of the abnormality of our reality and the devastation of the situation. A reminder of businesses closed, jobs lost, people hungry, adults unemployed, and children in need.

Booths once occupied by patrons sits boxes of pasta, canned goods, produce, and more.

Areas where a year ago guests would wait for a table or a seat at the bar, resides piles of diapers, wipes and formula

Employee lockers empty, with the exception of a few possessions left behind, locked in a time capsule marked March 17, 2020.

52 weeks of doing this work. I am exhausted. I am sad. I am angry. But I am energized, hopeful, and (more than) ready for change! And I am so appreciative. I am appreciative of our strong networks, partnerships, and members that make up the RWMA community. We would not have been able to get through this year had it not been for each and every one of you. Thank you for your continued support. We are so grateful.

In continued solidarity,

Alex and your friends at RWMA

12/31/2020

As the following article is titled, “In the season of extreme need, some mutual aid groups are flourishing. Others are sinking under the weight”, RWMA is keenly aware of this truth, as we have experienced moments of flourishing feats as well as heavy humbling realities. Looking back on 2020 there were several times we were unsure if we would be able to sustain this work:

a) Physically: The challenges that come from working with such a small group of volunteers to ensure safety measures, mean that some weeks we are unable to secure enough volunteers (due to health scares, people going back to work, NE weather, etc.).
b) Emotionally: As this work is one full of highs and lows, rooted in devastation but built from love and community. While emotion is a driving force of this work, it is one that needs proper fueling.
c) Financially: Because we are not an official nonprofit, we rely heavily on the support of individual donors. Although we have been the recipients of a few grants, over 95% of the funding to date has come from individual donors. A fact that is simply incredible.

Only one week of the past 41 (41!), did we lack sufficient funds to meet our budget. When interviewed by journalist Alexandra Jones, of The Counter Newsroom, early this fall, we were going through a particular lag in donations. I was quoted saying, “My goal at this point is to just get to 2021 and continue to re-evaluate.” Well, thanks to the support of our generous donors and community partners, not only did we get to 2021, but we are entering it stronger than we could have imaged.

While this work has its challenges, it is the ever growing network of RWMA that sustains us in overcoming the physical, emotional, and financial barriers that inevitably arise. The beauty of mutual aid is that we are fueled by one another: by our numerous partner organizations, loyal volunteers, grateful members, humble donors, and steadfast strangers who become friends.

This year has been a wild ride, to say the least, and one that required constant evaluation and adaptation. But if our community, and the thousands of other mutual aids around the country, are any indicator of what can be accomplished when supporting one another, then I leave 2020 with more optimism than I entered it, and I embrace 2021 with that much more to be grateful for.

Happy New Year, from Alex and the RWMA community.

Giving and volunteerism ebb and crest with pandemic fatigue, civil unrest, and the weather.

11/26/2020

“More Americans are going hungry now than at any point during the deadly coronavirus pandemic [...]”.

As we eat our meals this holiday, let us be reminded how much we have to be grateful for. The ability to put food on your own table is something that too many of our community members struggle with, pre and post Covid, and now more than ever before. While we have much to be grateful for, let that also be a reminder that we have much work to do. 💜💜🖤

More Americans are going hungry now than at any point during the deadly covid-19 pandemic, according to new federal data.

11/17/2020

Three groups from the region explain how they’ve multiplied efforts to help the hungry.

10/07/2020

A national coalition seeking to lift millions of tipped and sub-minimum-wage workers out of poverty amid the coronavirus pandemic joined U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Massachusetts lawmakers on Tue…

10/05/2020

Join us tomorrow in an opportunity to engage in the conversation around restaurant work and One Fair Wage. At noon a virtual town hall will be held with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and other elected officials, featuring High Road employers and restaurant workers. Amongst speakers is co-founder and organizer of RWMA, Alex Gladwell.

Join Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, service workers, High Road employers and other MA electeds to discuss the state of the tipped workforce

09/30/2020

Not a bad lil’ yield from our garden today 🥰