COVID-19 Crisis Response
As an “Essential Services Provider” Community Servings is working on the frontlines. In order to address the crisis across the community, we are seeking additional funding for the following purposes:
Increase kitchen capacity to produce 16,000 meals per week to reach more high-risk/high-need populations.
Increase home-delivery of 10 meals per week with the goal of serving 1,600 food-insecure, severely ill, immune- suppressed clients per day.
In partnership with the City of Boston, expand our feeding program during the height of the pandemic to produce 2,500 meals per week for include food-insecure and high-risk Boston residents, providing our microwave- ready, scratch-made meals for partner agencies able to pick them up from our kitchens in Jamaica Plain.
Increase purchasing of emergency food supplies.
Assemble and ship thousands of medically tailored shelf- stable food boxes to ensure clients have reserves of food in the event of disruptions in delivery.
Shift our business operations, which relied heavily on 50- 75 volunteers per day, to a fully paid staff to limit the risk of exposure and streamline operations. This will require hiring up to 14 new kitchen and delivery staff, drawing from laid-off restaurant and food vendor workers.
Increase safety and sanitation of our building and delivery vans, including institution of a “no-contact” delivery method.
Invest in additional equipment and technology to ensure staff that need to be home due to childcare and/or preexisting health conditions can work remotely.
“My pantry is more stocked up than it’s been in a long time. I now feel safe and prepared during this challenging time. Thank you, Community Servings, for everything you do!” ~Community Servings Client
“Stocking up on food is always hard for me. In addition to my meals, I am so grateful for the extra boxes of food that you sent me. Thank you!” ~Community Servings Client
Links:
COVID-19 Crisis Response
As an “Essential Services Provider” Community Servings is working on the frontlines. In order to address the crisis across the community, we are seeking additional funding for the following purposes:
Increase kitchen capacity to produce 16,000 meals per week to reach more high-risk/high-need populations.
Increase home-delivery of 10 meals per week with the goal of serving 1,600 food-insecure, severely ill, immune- suppressed clients per day.
In partnership with the City of Boston, expand our feeding program during the height of the pandemic to produce 2,500 meals per week for include food-insecure and high-risk Boston residents, providing our microwave- ready, scratch-made meals for partner agencies able to pick them up from our kitchens in Jamaica Plain.
Increase purchasing of emergency food supplies.
Assemble and ship thousands of medically tailored shelf- stable food boxes to ensure clients have reserves of food in the event of disruptions in delivery.
Shift our business operations, which relied heavily on 50- 75 volunteers per day, to a fully paid staff to limit the risk of exposure and streamline operations. This will require hiring up to 14 new kitchen and delivery staff, drawing from laid-off restaurant and food vendor workers.
Increase safety and sanitation of our building and delivery vans, including institution of a “no-contact” delivery method.
Invest in additional equipment and technology to ensure staff that need to be home due to childcare and/or preexisting health conditions can work remotely.
“My pantry is more stocked up than it’s been in a long time. I now feel safe and prepared during this challenging time. Thank you, Community Servings, for everything you do!” ~Community Servings Client
“Stocking up on food is always hard for me. In addition to my meals, I am so grateful for the extra boxes of food that you sent me. Thank you!” ~Community Servings Client
Links:
Major Activities and Accomplishments
Over the past year, we provided 549,729 medically tailored meals to 2,012 clients, their dependent children and caregivers who were affected by critical and chronic illnesses such as cancer, renal disease, HIV and multiple sclerosis. Of those served, 94% were living in poverty, more than 40% were families, and 62% were from communities of color. These clients received 15 different medical diets, customized in a variety of combinations to meet their medical and nutritional needs.
Notably, our most recent research study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action program, was published in April in JAMA – Internal Medicine. This study provides strong new evidence linking medically tailored meal interventions to improved health outcomes and lower medical costs for high-need, high-cost patients. This groundbreaking study is the largest and most rigorous evaluation of medically tailored meals, to date.
Additional Activities and Accomplishments
Nutrition Education & Counseling
“Food Is Medicine” Food & Health Policy Initiative
Volunteer Program
Local Foods Program
Teaching Kitchen Food-Service Job Training Program
Looking Ahead
Links:
Dear Friend,
On behalf of Community Servings’ clients, volunteers, and staff, thank you again for your generosity. Over the past year we have had great success in our effort to prevent hunger among low-income individuals and families affected by critical illness.
Over the past year, we have provided 650,000 medically tailored meals to over 2,300 individuals who were living with more than 25 different life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, renal disease, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis. In addition, we experienced successful outcomes in our nutrition education, job-training, volunteer, local foods and food and health policy programs as detailed in the attached report.
Thank you again for your generous commitment to Community Servings and the clients we serve.
Sincerely,
David B. Waters
CEO
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Nutrition Program
Volunteer Program
Local Foods Program
Nutrition Education
“Food Is Medicine” Food & Health Policy Initiative
Teaching Kitchen Food-Service Job Training Program
“Food Campus” Capital Expansion Project
Challenges We are actively engaged in building investment in our capital expansion project to create a 31,000 square foot "Food Campus" that will enable us to triple our capacity. The urgency for this capital expansion cannot be understated. Today, we have a waiting list of 150 individuals who have been medically certified as needing our medically tailored nutrition program. Our kitchen is operating at maximum designed capacity and we simply do not have enough slots to start clients who are in need upon referral. Clients are prioritized based on a framework of illness severity and isolation and many are on our waitlist for three to six months before starting our meals. For these sick and nutritionally vulnerable clients and their families, this waiting period is extremely difficult and often detrimental to their ability to manage their illness.
Links:
Dear Friend,
On behalf of Community Servings’ clients, volunteers, and staff, thank you again for your generosity. Over the past year we have had great success in our effort to prevent hunger among low-income individuals and families affected by critical illness.
Over the past year, we have provided 650,000 medically tailored meals to over 2,300 individuals who were living with more than 25 different life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, renal disease, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis. In addition, we experienced successful outcomes in our nutrition education, job-training, volunteer, local foods and food and health policy programs as detailed in the attached report.
Thank you again for your generous commitment to Community Servings and the clients we serve.
Sincerely,
David B. Waters
CEO
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Nutrition Program
Volunteer Program
Local Foods Program
Nutrition Education
“Food Is Medicine” Food & Health Policy Initiative
Teaching Kitchen Food-Service Job Training Program
“Food Campus” Capital Expansion Project
Challenges We are actively engaged in building investment in our capital expansion project to create a 31,000 square foot "Food Campus" that will enable us to triple our capacity. The urgency for this capital expansion cannot be understated. Today, we have a waiting list of 150 individuals who have been medically certified as needing our medically tailored nutrition program. Our kitchen is operating at maximum designed capacity and we simply do not have enough slots to start clients who are in need upon referral. Clients are prioritized based on a framework of illness severity and isolation and many are on our waitlist for three to six months before starting our meals. For these sick and nutritionally vulnerable clients and their families, this waiting period is extremely difficult and often detrimental to their ability to manage their illness.
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser