For many of us that came of age in the 1980's, the AIDS epidemic was our defining moment.ﾠ Tremendously scary, overwhelming and tragic.ﾠ But out of that tragedy, came some good things, too.ﾠ A call to action, a sense of community, and in our case, the discovery that FOOD can play an equal role with Western medicine in the fight against life-threatening illnesses.

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Community Servings was founded in 1990 by a coalition of 70 different organizations under the leadership of Sheila Decter and the American Jewish Congress.ﾠ For those of you old enough to remember, the AIDS epidemic was wreaking havoc on people's immune systems and there were no drugs available to counter the attack.ﾠ The only way to keep a loved one alive was to feed them, offering the body ammunition as it worked to fight off the virus.ﾠ We think of it as the first example of "Food as Medicine" -- our mantra.ﾠ Community Servings' visionary founders believed that a hot meal prepared with love was a caring gift, and Boston needed a collaborative response to the disease.

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Community Servings began delivering 30 meals a day three days a week in two Boston neighborhoods.ﾠ Over the years, we developed an effective model of medical nutrition therapy, matching the right diet with the right illness, drug treatment and side-effects.ﾠ Today, we offer 25 different medically appropriate diets each day.ﾠ Over time, we found that our meals were equally beneficial for those with HIV, cancer, kidney disease or cardiac disease, and expanded our mission in 2004 to serve 35 different illnesses.ﾠ We also expanded from 2 neighborhoods of Boston, to the entire city and eventually to 16 communities across 200 square miles of Eastern Massachusetts.ﾠ We now feed 1500 individuals ayear, offering 375,000 free meals to the critically ill and their children and caregivers.

20th Anniversary Celebration remarks