Supporting Partnerships

Building Partnerships to Meet Local Need

When crisis hits a community, it’s every hand on deck. When COVID-19 came to Watertown, the economic consequences brought non-profits and businesses together to meet a fundamental need: keeping families fed.

Keeping People Housed by Delivering Food

The Watertown Housing Authority (WHA) is about ensuring every person has a place to call home. They provide housing for more than 700 extremely low-income households, from families with school-age kids to veterans and older adults. The average annual family income is just above $20,000 with older adults living on even less.  

“We know from Project Bread, a local food security organization, that 17% of Massachusetts households reported food insecurity this year,” said Olivia Fields, LCSW, Director of Resident Services of the Watertown Housing Authority.  “When food costs soar, it has an outsize impact on extremely low-income households which can’t close that financial gap and still pay rent.”

When the COVID-19 global pandemic hit—causing unexpected medical costs, shuttering workplaces and schools, keeping people at home—household costs started rising. Older adults couldn’t get out for grocery runs. Remote learning increased demand for electricity and internet, and families had little financial flexibility to respond when grocery prices rose too. 

The Watertown Community Foundation helped close this gap and keep people fed and housed during this health emergency by channeling nearly $1,000,000 in funding from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development to the Watertown Housing Authority for a food delivery and distribution program during COVID. 

“We could see that families were living on the edge. If setting up and running a food delivery and distribution program was going to help keep people in their homes, then that’s what we were going to do,” said Kristen Monti, Watertown Housing Authority Director of Operations who helped start the program in 2021. It was no easy operational feat. “We started by trying a program with Pea Pod that, within a preset household budget, gave families the flexibility to order the food they needed, and have it delivered directly to them when they needed it,” said Kristen. “It took a lot of trial and error to smooth out the kinks with the online ordering and billing.” They augmented the personal delivery program with an in-house “Free Food Store” for older residents.  

Letting people know they could sign up also proved a challenge at first.  So Sarah Woods, WHA resident, was hired as a food manager to answer questions, manage the Food Store, organize events and plan community meals. “As a single parent and working mom, this program really helped make sure my family had healthy consistent meals during this challenging time,” said Sarah. “And now, I could help my neighbors sign up and benefit too.”  Ultimately, more than 1000 individuals benefited from this program when it concluded in the spring of 2024.

It Takes A Village:  Building Local Partnerships

As needs changed and food costs continued to rise, the program shifted from personal grocery delivery to connecting neighbors to each other and connecting people to food assistance through SNAP.  The WHA partnered with Roche Bros to provide pre-packed grocery bags, teamed up with Dick’s Farm and Stillman’s Farm from the Watertown Farmers’ Market to include seasonal market goods, fruits and veggies, and contracted with local restaurants to serve community meals.  “These events were great,” said Sarah Woods. “They really brought people together.  People shared recipes on how to use vegetables they’d never seen before, and they had a chance to ask about SNAP.”

A big participant in this program was Donohue’s Bar & Grill run by JD Donohue, a fourth-generation Watertownian, who has been giving back to the community for decades. JD’s deep appreciation for the importance of community organizations was forged during the years he hung out at the Watertown Boys and Girls Club. Not only did he make lifelong friendships, but he also saw how important it was for the business community to pitch in. “We’re all neighbors,” he said. “And you always look out for neighbors.” JD has sat on the Club’s Board of Directors and runs fundraisers that raise tens of thousands of dollars annually to support their work. When COVID hit he realized that many Watertown kids were going without food because they weren’t attending school in person. As a restaurateur he knew exactly what to do – work with the Club to provide take home meatball and pasta meals for the kids that needed them.

This experience left him primed for action when he got a call from Sarah Woods at the Watertown Housing Authority. She was planning community meals to help feed seniors and she turned to JD for help. Not only did he provide food for buffet lunches at a deep discount, he also stepped into the role of liaison with other local restaurant owners, like Fordees and D&D’s Pizza and Subs. He encouraged them to also participate in this meal program, resulting in a greater variety of meal and dessert options. Just as important, it freed up Sarah’s time so she could focus on other ways to provide food and groceries for the families living in the Housing Authority properties.

None of this was a surprise to Doug Orifice, co-founder of the Watertown Business Coalition. “Local businesses in Watertown have traditionally played an important part in strengthening the vitality and health of our community,” said Doug. “When businesses partner to support Watertown’s non-profits, that are the backbone of our community’s support system, it makes us all stronger.”

Watertown is fortunate to have many business owners and restaurateurs who care deeply about the community and are committed to making it a great place for all—whether that means supporting team sports, schools, the arts, food security or all of the above and more. When Watertown residents needed additional support during COVID, the Watertown Housing Authority reached out to state-wide organizations like Stop and Shop and Roche Bros., as well as the Watertown’s small businesses to get involved. Even now, it is a testament to the culture in our community that newcomers such as Wicked Bagel owners Maria and Jack Mahoney began making bagel donations to the food pantries, the Community Fridge and the Watertown Housing Authority as soon as they opened their Watertown store. 

The Watertown Community Foundation is proud to support the innovative Food Delivery and Distribution Program that Olivia Fields, Kristen Monti and Sarah Woods designed and delivered during the COVID health crisis. They built local partnerships to make this happen.  We celebrate JD Donohue, owner of Donohue’s Bar & Grill, in his leadership in supporting this program and as a role model in contributing to the vitality of the Watertown community.