From the Community

Community Servings Aims for ‘Record-Baking’ Year for Pie in the Sky Fundraiser

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Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain-based nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services, recently announced the launch of its 29th annual Pie in the Sky, the community bake sale-style fundraiser that helps feed chronically and critically ill neighbors across Massachusetts. Whole Foods Market is returning as the presenting sponsor and will donate proceeds from select pie sales in stores ahead of Thanksgiving. “We’re planning for a ‘record-baking’ Pie in the Sky thanks to the generosity our sponsors, bakers and volunteers,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. “Together, we’ll not only help address the increasing need for nutritious food among our community’s critically and chronically ill, but will make Thanksgiving dinner even more meaningful for thousands of families across Massachusetts.”

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop last year’s Pie in the Sky. With streamlined baking, boxing and touchless delivery of more than 7,000 pies from Community Servings’ kitchen and Hyde Park-based Boston Baking Inc., and the sale of thousands of pumpkin and apple pies at Whole Food Markets across Massachusetts, Community Servings raised over $640,000 in 2020.

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From the Community

Community Servings Prepares 10 Millionth Medically Tailored Meal

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When Community Servings was founded in 1990, a small group of volunteers delivered 30 hot dinners to nourish people struggling with wasting syndrome associated with HIV/AIDS. Today, more than three decades later, the Jamaica Plain nonprofit organization has cooked up its 10 millionth scratch-made meal as its mission has expanded to serve individuals with a wide range of illnesses. “This milestone is a matter of pride for the 70-plus employees and dozens of daily volunteers whose collective mission is to prepare medically tailored meals in the kitchen of Community Servings and deliver them to people in need across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. “We can count our progress by the millions now, but what we do really comes down to two words: food heals.”

To celebrate the milestone meal, a result of rapid growth over the last two years, Community Servings welcomed elected officials and community leaders, including U.S. Representative James P. McGovern (MA-2nd), a leading voice on hunger policy and longtime “food as medicine” champion, to its 31,000-square-foot “Food Campus” in Jamaica Plain on Sept. 13.

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From the Community

Run For All Returns to Jamaica Pond to Support Community Servings on Sept. 12

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Run For All, the popular free community celebration, will return to Jamaica Pond and support local nonprofit Community Servings. The Run will be on Sept. 12 at 10 am. Community Servings' CEO David Waters will provide remarks and talk about the organization's mission to provide nourishment, connection and well being to chronically and clinically ill neighbors. The communal nature of the event will culminate in a unified and noncompetitive run/walk around Jamaica Pond.

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From the Community

Community Servings Adds Three to Board of Directors

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Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain based nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families living with critical and chronic illnesses, recently announced the election of three new members to its board of directors. The three new board members are:

Stephen Bertolami, an executive vice president at Liberty Mutual Insurance overseeing enterprise services
Sophia Hall, a supervising attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights and a longtime advocate for the HIV/AIDS community
Greg Wilmot, chief operating officer of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. “One of our organization’s greatest assets is our highly engaged board, and the board is further strengthened by new members who bring strong leadership qualities, diverse personal perspectives and professional experience, and active engagement in their communities,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. “Our new directors and their shared passion for our ‘food is medicine’ mission will help guide Community Servings as we continue to grow and serve more people with critical and chronic illnesses.”

The new board members began their leadership roles with Community Servings in July. Stephen Bertolami

Bertolami’s career has focused on helping organizations scale operations in support of their unique business needs.

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From the Community

Community Servings Relaunches ‘Teaching Kitchen’

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Community Servings, a nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families in Massachusetts experiencing critical and chronic illnesses, recently announced the launch of its redesigned Teaching Kitchen program, a free 12-week hands-on food service job-training program for individuals facing barriers to full-time employment. Beginning in July, classes will resume inside the Learning Kitchen at Community Servings’ “Food Campus” in Jamaica Plain. In a first for the program, many students will be eligible to receive an earned training wage thanks in part to generous support from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Community-based Health Initiative funds, which were recently awarded to the agency as part of a three-year, $500,000 Focused Investment Grant aimed at addressing job and financial security in the community. As they learn food preparation and cooking skills, Teaching Kitchen trainees also help the agency prepare more than 3,000 medically tailored meals that are delivered daily to clients. “Restarting an enhanced Teaching Kitchen program has been a priority for us since March 2020, and the grant support from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center couldn’t have come at a better time,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings.

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From the Community

Community Servings’ Dinners4Dads Fundraiser Benefits Fathers in Need

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Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain based nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families in Massachusetts experiencing critical and chronic illnesses, is holding its annual Father’s Day fundraiser, Dinners4Dads, in partnership with Eastern Standard Provisions. Gift givers can send a father figure in their life a box of gourmet soft pretzels and accompanying salts – available in two sizes, 15 pretzels for $60 or 22 pretzels for $90 – along with a card designed by local artist Susy Pilgrim Waters inscribed with a personalized message. Each purchase is a donation that will support a local dad and his family with the nutritious food they need to maintain and improve their health. Supporters can also choose to send a card only for a $30 donation. In addition to Eastern Standard Provisions and Pilgrim Waters Design, Dinners4Dads is sponsored by Gold Star Studios.

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From the Community

Community Servings’ Meals4Moms Fundraiser Benefits Mothers in Need

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Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families in Massachusetts experiencing critical and chronic illnesses, recently launched its annual Mother’s Day fundraiser, Meals4Moms, in partnership with McCrea’s Candies of Boston. Gift givers can send mom a box of handcrafted caramels – available in two sizes, 40 pieces for $60 or 80 pieces for $90 – along with a card designed by local artist Susy Pilgrim Waters and inscribed with a personalized message. Each purchase is a donation that will support a local mom with the nutritious food they need to maintain and improve their health. Supporters can also choose to send just a card for a $30 donation. In addition to McCrea’s Candies and Pilgrim Waters Design, Meals4Moms is sponsored by Gold Star Studios and Franklin Printing.

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From the Community

JP Nonprofit Community Servings Launches Targeted COVID-19 Meals Program

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Jamaica Plain's Community Servings, a nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families in Massachusetts experiencing critical and chronic illnesses, recently announced another expansion of its meal delivery program with the launch of a targeted COVID-19 meals program to support individuals and their families dealing with food insecurity during the global pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of clients the agency serves weekly has increased by 56 percent, with capacity expanding to meet the need. To help identify and enroll participants in the three-month program, Community Servings is partnering with Massachusetts-based health care providers who can refer individuals that have recently tested positive for COVID-19, as well as those presumed positive or at high risk. “Expanding our medically tailored meal delivery to help feed people impacted by COVID-19 is possible thanks to the generous philanthropic support that we have received over the past year,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. “This program, which enables Community Servings to advance its social and health equity vision, is a means for many of our neighbors in need to receive healthy meals tailored by our registered dietitians and cooked with care in our kitchen while safely recovering at home.”

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Community Servings has prepared and delivered nearly 650,000 medically tailored meals to more than 2,000 people.

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From the Community

4 JP Nonprofits Receive Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation Grants

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The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation recently announced that four Jamaica Plain nonprofit organizations were awarded a total of $2,050 from the Foundation’s Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. The organizations receiving funds are:

• Beantown Society ($500)
• Bikes Not Bombs ($500)
• Community Servings ($550)
• Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center Inc. ($500)

To commemorate those Harvard Pilgrim members who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, Harvard Pilgrim and the Foundation created the Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. This program allows each Harvard Pilgrim employee to award a $500 grant, completely funded by the Foundation, to the local charity of his or her choice each calendar year. Since this community grants program began in 2002, Harvard Pilgrim employees have directed more than $6.8 million to thousands of organizations throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. “Now more than ever, as nonprofits across the region are dealing with the impact of COVID-19, we are committed to supporting their efforts to care for their communities,” said Karen Voci, President of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation.

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From the Community

Community Servings Launches Thanksgiving Fundraiser with Support from Whole Foods

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Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain based nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services, is running its annual community bake sale-style fundraiser that helps feed chronically and critically ill neighbors across Massachusetts. The 28th annual Pie in the Sky fundraiser’s sponsor is Whole Foods Market, which will also donate proceeds from sales of select pies in stores ahead of Thanksgiving. “Pie in the Sky has been our most successful fundraiser historically, and, with the help of Whole Foods Market and other longtime sponsors and supporters, we won’t let the challenges of 2020 hinder our mission. In fact, this year calls for more pie!” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. “‘More pie’ means helping us make more nourishing meals that improve the health and well-being of thousands of individuals who we serve with deliveries from our Jamaica Plain kitchen.

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