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For 40 years Haley House has worked to break down the barriers that exist between segments of an increasingly wealthy society. Dedicated to individuals made vulnerable by the harshest effects of inequality, Haley House has grown organically from a couple providing hospitality in a basement apartment on Upton Street. After the soup kitchen began at 23 Dartmouth, volunteers realized that many neighbors lived in isolation. They invited rooming house residents and neighbors to an elder meal— a nutritional supplement and meeting-place. Eventually a food pantry opened that enabled families and elders struggling to afford rent and groceries to cook and eat within their homes. In 1996 formerly homeless men living at Haley House found a way to earn money through preparing baked goods. With the help of volunteer professionals this progressed into a formal bakery training program, providing job skills for underemployed individuals. Whats Up, an award winning magazine also provides an opportunity to people beginning to take economic responsibility for their lives.

Less than two years ago we created the Haley House Bakery Café to promote economic sustainability for under-employed women and men and to nurture the Dudley Square community. We generate opportunities for rigorous job skills training alongside sustainable employment, all of which become the platform from which peoples’ full potential flourishes.

We have learned that those who come to us seeking to have their basic needs met do so with an equal craving for dignity and hope. For us, building relationships with the people we serve is a foundational part of what we do. We remain responsive to the evolving needs of the local community, organically cultivating programs to answer the challenges of a modern society—one in which the gap between the well-to-do and those-without continues to grow. At the heart of our work is sparking conversation, unity, and a vision for social change across economic, racial, and religious boundaries.

Due to the increasing struggles of poor and homeless people with health issues such as obesity and diabetes, we have focused our food programs on nutrition and better eating habits. We offer meals that are made from scratch, but we steer away from refined sugar and white flour and bring a new world of vegetables to the table. Every Wednesday, our pantry offers food with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and other healthy fare to low-income elders and families.

In the last ten years, Haley House has also focused on job creation and training to support people moving towards self-sufficiency. In conjunction with a more holistic approach to healthy eating is taking a new form in Dudley Square. We have created a welcoming, community-centered Café, which offers delicious, nutrient-rich food – often using locally grown and organic produce and dairy products. At the same time, our efficient production facility houses a rigorous training program for low-income individuals, which offers hands-on instruction and food training within our profitable and burgeoning catering business. By giving people with marketable barriers to employment marketable job skills and pride in bringing good food to their customers, friends, and families, our socially responsible business is contributing to the revitalization of a community.

Whether making dozens of olive oil-zucchini cakes for the YWCA Women of Color Obesity Dinner or making 100 spirals for the Diabetes Wellness Day at the Codman Health Center -- the people in Roxbury are requesting our food for many community events, ones that surround healthy eating and nutrition. The prevalence of social service agencies with whom we partner provides a vehicle for our food through catering. We served our fare to dozens of organizations ranging from the Museum of African American History and the Department of Neighborhood Development, to the Harvard School of Public Health, Dimock and Whittier Health Centers, and the Boston Center for Youth. Our relations with the health community have strengthened and furthered our goals of a healthier community.

Haley House has become a launching pad for social entrepreneurship by using socially responsible business practices to fulfill our mission, or, as some academics refer to it, the “double bottom line.” We empower our employees by recognizing their talents and encouraging them to take responsibility in their areas of expertise. Our various programs promote and exemplify an integrated model of community that aims to bring people of all ages, from all walks of life, together to create change.