In 1966, Kathe and John McKenna rented a basement apartment in Boston’s South End and began taking in the men they found sleeping on the street. They offered a cot and a simple meal—no strings attached—which was first met with skepticism and disbelief among the destitute and freezing men who called Tremont Street their home. At once simple and radical, this act of personal hospitality set the tone for Haley House ever since.
Soon Haley House expanded into a full-service Soup Kitchen, run by a growing community of like-minded people, who offered their time and presence in exchange for room and board. Like those who followed, the original community was moved to action by the social, racial, and economic injustice they witnessed, and they found inspiration from radical activists of the day such as Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and Mahatma Gandhi. This model of people living together, feeding and befriending those experiencing the effects of poverty and homelessness as an integrated community, persists. The Live-In Community, a group of volunteers who have committed to living and working at Haley House for an extended period of time, continues to manage the majority of our direct services while living upstairs from the Soup Kitchen, as folks have since 1966.
Read below to learn about how our programs grew.
A half century later, Haley House remains dedicated to breaking down barriers that separate people in our increasingly polarized society. Always local in its focus, Haley House has developed organically in response to those most vulnerable to the harshest effects of social inequality.
Learn about our namesake, Leo Haley.
Feeding people has been central to the mission of Haley House from the start. Tucked away on the same, quiet, tree-lined street in the South End since 1966, our Soup Kitchen has remained a welcoming respite for nearly a half century. Six days a week, guests are invited to enjoy delicious, nutrient-dense, made-from-scratch meals prepared by our Live-In Community and a vast network of volunteers. In 1974, members of the community recognized that as the neighborhood began rapidly changing, older residents were struggling in new ways with social isolation and rising food costs. Thus was born our Elder Meal, a gathering of old friends and new, especially intended to welcome and supplement the diets of residents of rooming houses and nearby subsidized housing. There were others in the neighborhood, families with children, also struggling to get by on limited incomes, so our weekly Food Pantry opened in 1998.
After the first few years of providing hospitality in the Soup Kitchen, the dire need for affordable housing in Boston became undeniable and urgent. In 1972, Haley House responded by becoming Boston’s first homeless service provider to create permanent, affordable housing. Today, our housing program encompasses over 100 units of housing scattered throughout the South End, helping to stabilize and empower individuals through affordable, secure, and well-managed long-term housing. 24 units are reserved for formerly homeless individuals who stay an average of 8.2 years. The remaining units are reserved for low-income families.
In 1982, Haley House began farming organically at Noonday Farm in the country-side. After thirty years of deep appreciation for all that Noonday Farm had been and continues to be, Haley House sold this bio-dynamic and completely sustainable gem to a land trust to protect its future.
Inspired by Noonday’s example, we refocused resources on urban agriculture to source fresh food and offer more locally accessible ground for experiential learning about seed-to-table nutrition. Haley House’s urban agriculture initiative began with the pilot program with our South End neighborhood partner. McKinley Garden is a school-based community garden that teaches students the importance of connecting to the outdoors and understanding where food comes from. More recently we have partnered with Roxbury neighbors to cultivate land at 95 Thornton.
In the 1990s, guests from the Soup Kitchen learned how to bake bread, taught others, and began selling it to our South End neighbors. This led to the formation of the Bakery Training Program, where community members could gain invaluable practical skills and employment experience. Support was strong, and the Bakery Training Program soon outgrew its home at the Soup Kitchen. In 2005, Haley House opened Haley House Bakery Café (HHBC) in nearby Dudley Square (now Nubian Square, in Roxbury). HHBC blossomed into a celebrated community hub, and Haley House purchased the building in 2015. In addition to offering nutrient-rich, delicious food, our social enterprise business offered economic opportunities for people with barriers to traditional employment (especially those transitioning out of incarceration) and culinary education for youth (Take Back the Kitchen). HHBC served as a gathering space where artists, organizers, community leaders, vendors, and food lovers could connect and share ideas. After 14 years, the Bakery Café underwent a re-envisioning process in 2019 and relaunched with an updated business model in 2020, integrating the principles of “Open Book Management” for the cafe staff. When COVID-19 hit 6 weeks after our reopening, HHBC was able to pivot its model, offering take-out and delivery, while partnering with other local organizations to provide meals to those living in affordable housing across Boston. As the pandemic wore on, the impact on HHBC became too powerful, and Haley House made the decision to suspend operations In January of 2022, with the prospect of a new building constructed in front of our cafe, Haley House made the decision to suspend operations to plan and prepare for a new social enterprise at 2147 Washington Street. Our Nubian Square location remains the home of our education and training programs.
As we have grown, Haley House has remained true to our roots as a simple house of hospitality—never giving up on those who find themselves struggling to survive, offering a cup of coffee, a hot meal, and a listening ear to anyone who finds their way to our doors.
Haley House uses food with purpose and the power of community to break down barriers between people, empower individuals, and strengthen neighborhoods. We believe in radical solutions: solving problems at their root by challenging attitudes that perpetuate suffering and building alternative models.
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