Give Back. Get Pie.
Now through 11/22, your purchase of a locally baked apple, pecan, or pumpkin Thanksgiving pie from Community Servings provides a week of meals for a neighbor in need. Order today to make a difference!
Our production kitchen and headquarters are located at 179 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, steps from Stony Brook Station on the MBTA Orange Line. We offer designated parking lots for volunteer use on a first-come, first-served basis.
Our packing and distribution facility, which opened in 2024, is located at 170 Forbes Blvd, Mansfield, MA 02048
Weekdays
Volunteer shifts are available Monday through Friday, with the following times in Jamaica Plain: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. (morning), 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. (afternoon), and 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. (evening). In Mansfield, we offer morning and afternoon shifts except Friday afternoons. If activities are completed quickly, shifts may be shorter than three hours.
Each shift’s tasks are organized in production lines, so we cannot guarantee that volunteers arriving more than 15 minutes after the start of a shift will be able to participate in production.
The Volunteer Services team is available in person or by phone (617.522.7777, option #5) weekdays from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Volunteer tasks in our production kitchen include chopping, peeling, and processing produce; portioning entrees, soups, salads, and snacks; and assembling meal bags for delivery to our clients’ homes.
At our Mansfield packing and distribution center, volunteers stack and sort meals and soups and assemble delivery bags and shipping boxes. At both locations, we regularly need help building double bags or shipping boxes and labeling bags with the delivery route and client dietary information.
The nature of volunteer work requires standing for the duration of the three-hour shift with a 10-minute break around the halfway point. Volunteering requires lifting and moving items weighing up to 15 lbs and meeting stringent quality standards to ensure each of our clients receives the right ingredients, meals, and other dietary components in their delivery. If you may not be able to perform any of these activities unaided, please see the section below on All Ability volunteering to learn about additional supports or activities we may offer.
We do not offer weekend volunteer opportunities at this time.
We expect volunteers to commit to the full duration of their scheduled shift: typically 3 hours for production kitchen and packing shifts, or about 2 hours for delivery driving. We cannot accommodate requests to adjust shifts to start earlier or later than our set schedules, which begin at 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., or 4:00 p.m.
If you are interested in volunteering regularly, please contact Volunteer Services at or 617.522.7777, option #5, to set up a recurring volunteer schedule.
No prior experience is necessary! We will give new volunteers a 15-minute orientation at the start of their first shift. Our team will show you exactly what you need to do in the production kitchen or packing areas.
Yes. We welcome volunteers to help with our special events, Pie in the Sky (September – Thanksgiving) and LifeSavor (Spring). Please visit this webpage for updates on other opportunities, including seasonal activities like gardening in Jamaica Plain.
We also need a few volunteers who can commit to delivering meals to our clients in the Greater Boston area, ideally on the same day each week, with a minimum 4-month commitment, or on designated delivery dates around the fall and winter holidays.
Recurring shifts occur on weekday mornings and typically require about 2 hours. For all delivery driver inquiries, please contact Volunteer Services at or 617.522.7777, option #5.
We follow a strict kitchen dress code year-round, regardless of warm weather, to ensure our volunteers’ safety and food quality. Volunteers are required to adhere to the following guidelines:
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Long-sleeved shirts that fully cover the midriff and forearms
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Closed-toe shoes that completely cover the foot (e.g., sneakers or boots)
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Long pants without rips or tears, or a full-length skirt
Hairnets, beard nets, aprons, and gloves will be provided on-site.
Volunteers must be at least 13 years old to work in our Jamaica Plain production kitchen or Mansfield packing areas. All minor volunteers (under 18) MUST have a youth waiver signed by a parent or guardian; without this, they will not be allowed to volunteer. Volunteers under 18 are not permitted to use knives.
Youth volunteers aged 13-15 must be accompanied by a chaperone, with a youth-to-chaperone ratio of 8:1 for groups. Youth volunteers aged 16-17 may volunteer unchaperoned as individuals with advance written notice to Volunteer Services (), or with a youth-to-chaperone ratio of 10:1 for groups.
Children under 13 can help by making cards for our clients. Please refer to our Guidelines for Card Making to ensure your cards meet our needs
To help protect our staff and clients from communicable illness, please refrain from volunteering if you’re not feeling 100% healthy.
If you’re experiencing symptoms like coughing, fever, chills, body aches, chest congestion, shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, or diarrhea within 48 hours of your scheduled shift, please reach out to us at 617.522.7777 (option #5) or , or cancel your shift via your Volunteer Personal Site. We hope to see you again when you’re feeling better!
If you’re experiencing persistent allergy symptoms, please wear a face mask.
Fragrances and scented products can cause serious reactions in people with asthma, allergies, migraines, or chemical sensitivities. To keep our workplace healthy and comfortable for everyone, Community Servings maintains a controlled fragrance environment. Please avoid wearing scented personal care products—including perfume, cologne, aftershave, deodorant, hairspray, and body spray—that others can detect.
We host corporate and community groups Monday through Friday at our Jamaica Plain and Mansfield locations. Our high-impact, hands-on volunteer experience is a great way to strengthen bonds between coworkers while giving back to the community. There’s no need to sign up group members individually—just email Volunteer Services at or call 617.522.7777, option #5.
In Jamaica Plain, we can accommodate up to 20 volunteers during morning and afternoon shifts and up to 10 in the evening. In Mansfield, we can host groups of 4-6 volunteers. Individuals within your group may be assigned to different areas of our commercial kitchen depending on production needs.
We typically book out 6-8 weeks in advance, depending on group size and preferred shift times—and 3+ months ahead around the fall and winter holidays.
Individual volunteers and community groups (e.g., schools, municipal organizations, and other nonprofits) are not required to make a donation. Volunteers who’d like to donate to support our meal program can do so online or on-site (please note that we cannot accept cash).
Corporate volunteer groups in Boston (Jamaica Plain) are asked to make a $75 per-volunteer donation for each shift. Instituted in 2022, this donation covers roughly two weeks of scratch-made, medically tailored meals for one of our clients and helps offset the staff and infrastructure costs of hosting large groups. Corporate volunteer donations are optional at our Mansfield facility.
If you’d like to learn more about sponsorship arrangements that would exempt your organization from the required donation, please email our Manager of Volunteer Services, T’sera Mirescu (), and ask to be connected with a member of our Development team.
Yes. Please plan to arrive about 10 minutes before your shift starts (9 a.m., 1 p.m., or 4 p.m.) to sign in on the iPad near the reception desk and store your belongings in the locker room. A member of our Volunteer Services team will welcome you, show a 6-minute orientation video, share our mission, and walk you through a short food safety training and Q&A before you head to the wash station and into the production areas.
You won’t need to repeat orientation on future shifts, but please don’t hesitate to ask our production staff any questions along the way!
We cannot accept walk-in volunteers who have not already signed up for a shift. If you hope to find an opportunity on short notice, please check the Jamaica Plain or Mansfield shift calendars. If a shift title contains “full,” we are already at capacity. If not, hover over the shift to see how many spots remain available.
If you think you signed up for a shift but can’t find a confirmation email or see it in your Volunteer Personal Site portal, please call Volunteer Services at 617.522.7777, option #5, or email for assistance
Most of our volunteer activities take place in our kitchen and on the production lines in the packing area. Because of the nature of our work, we recommend arriving on time for your shift (9 a.m., 1 p.m., or 4 p.m.). Volunteers arriving more than 15 minutes after the start of a shift may not be able to join production, and those arriving more than 30 minutes late without notifying the Volunteer Services team in advance will not be able to participate.
Boston-area traffic can be heavy and unpredictable, so we recommend allowing extra time for travel, particularly when heading to Jamaica Plain. If you’re running late, please call us at 617.522.7777, option #5, so we can alert production staff to your ETA or discuss alternative volunteer activities.
Most of our volunteer activities are performed by volunteers and overseen by Community Servings staff in production lines according to a set schedule. As such, we cannot accommodate volunteers arriving significantly early or late, or joining for partial shifts, even if you’re an experienced volunteer familiar with the tasks. For safety reasons, volunteers cannot work in production areas without supervision from our staff.
We deeply value the time and dedication of all our volunteers and appreciate your commitment to joining us on a team schedule.
We’re happy to provide documentation of your completed volunteer hours. To ensure an accurate count, we ask that all volunteers sign in and out of each shift, including back-to-back shifts. If you’re working both the morning and afternoon shifts, please sign out and back in—the lunch hour, when production pauses, doesn’t count toward volunteer time.
Please let us know in advance if you’ll need verification of your hours. We can print hours verification letters with our logo and information with 1-2 days’ notice; for other types of forms, we ask for at least a week’s notice.
Hours that aren’t properly logged in our system—or corrected promptly after a shift through the Volunteer Services team—can’t be included on your verification.
Please note that we can’t guarantee a specific number of hours within any given timeframe, and we’re unable to accept walk-ins. If you’re having difficulty finding enough shifts, please email or call us at 617.522.7777, option #5, and we’ll help you navigate our upcoming capacity and needs.
Community Servings is committed to hosting volunteers of all abilities for meaningful service in a safe and welcoming environment. If you or a group you represent is interested in volunteering and requires additional accommodations, please email our Manager of Volunteer Services, T’sera Mirescu, at or call 617.522.7777 x324. Our team will work closely with each individual or group to accommodate requests within the boundaries of our safety policies and production needs.
For prospective All Ability volunteer groups, we recommend starting with a tour of our facilities—for your staff and, where helpful, program members—so we can talk through your group’s unique needs. This helps us assess which activities might be a good fit, how often we can offer them given current production needs, and what staff-to-member ratio will lead to a productive, engaging experience. Individual All Ability volunteers should let our team know in advance what accommodations you may need, so we can have them in place for you—we may not be able to arrange them appropriately on short notice.
Because of the nature of our kitchen and packaging facilities, some activities may not be possible for certain volunteers even with advance notice. These spaces can be loud and fast-paced, requiring careful attention to detail and consistency to keep our clients’ meals safe and high-quality. Our space for seated tasks—those that don’t require standing or lifting items up to 15 lbs—is also very limited.
Contact the Volunteer Services coordination team at or 617.522.7777, option #5. Vincere Matthew in Jamaica Plain and Kristina Cates in Mansfield are available Monday through Friday for all individual and group booking inquiries.
If you need to connect with a different team at Community Servings or have any other questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email T’sera Mirescu, Manager of Volunteer Services, at or call 617.522.7777 x324.