Over the past 20 years, Community Servings has evolved from a small neighborhood meals program delivering a hot dinner to 30 individuals struggling with HIV/AIDS to a regional nutrition program serving lunch, dinner and a snack to 1400 people per year across Eastern Massachusetts -- all of whom are unable to shop or cook for themselves due to a critical illness.
In those early years, the only medicine you could offer a loved one dying from AIDS was a high-calorie meal to combat AIDS wasting syndrome. As food professionals, we still think that our beautiful meals are as important to a healthy recovery from illness as all the medicines in the world! Indeed, over the years we have developed an unparalleled expertise in medically tailored diets, and now offer 22 different menus each day to meet the individual needs of our sick clients and their families. We also offer nutritional counseling and education, as well as food service job training. In 2007, our mission came full circle when we developed a rewarding partnership with an HIV program in South Africa to bring our technical expertise to support the fight against the epidemic in southern Africa.
Through the leadership of Sheila Decter and The America Jewish Congress, the agency was founded in 1989 by a diverse coalition of AIDS activists, faith groups, and community organizations to provide home-delivered meals to individuals living with HIV/AIDS. After serving our first meal in 1990, we opened a small kitchen in a shared facility in Dorchester and in 1991 began deliveries with a single van and driver. To accommodate growing demand, we moved to a larger industrial kitchen in Roxbury in 1996, expanded our services to three nearby towns, and increased our servings from one meal per day to lunch, dinner, and a snack. Recognizing the need for home-based nutritional support amongst people ill with all life-threatening illnesses, in 2004 we expanded our mission beyond the HIV/AIDS community to provide meals to the acutely ill, their dependents, and caregivers, regardless of illness. Geographically, we've seen similar growth and now deliver meals across 200 square miles from Brockton in the south to Lawrence in the north. Today, we serve clients in 16 cities and towns who are battling 32 different types of illnesses, including breast and other cancers, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, Parkinson's Disease, liver and kidney disease, hepatitis, and lupus. Since 1990, we have served over 3.6 million free meals to the critically ill, helping those from Eastern Massachusetts' most disenfranchised communities fight hunger and illness.
A transformative moment in our history came in June 2007, when we moved to our new state-of-the-art nutrition facility in Jamaica Plain. We had reached capacity in our old facility and could not accommodate the growing number of individuals and families in need of our meal service. Our new, larger facility enables us to significantly increase meal capacity, improve food quality, engage greater numbers of volunteers, expand nutrition services including on-site nutrition classes, develop complimentary programs such as food-service job-training and diversify our funding revenues through a social enterprise program.