Are you in the Boston area and looking for a community service activity in which to participate with your coworkers? Consider volunteering at Community Servings in Jamaica Plain. This nonprofit organization provides medically-tailored meals to thousands of people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island experiencing a range of critical and chronic illnesses. They rely heavily on volunteers to help prepare and package an impressive 20,000-plus scratch-made meals weekly.
PROMETRIKA provides time off for employees to support charities that are meaningful to them. Several teams have volunteered at Community Servings over the past 5 years. Everyone that has participated has enjoyed the hands-on work and left feeling that they had made a meaningful contribution, and many have returned multiple times.
Volunteers are assigned in small groups to assist with meal preparation, portioning or packaging. The first time I volunteered, a coworker and I were asked to help in the kitchen. Have you ever made falafel for several hundred people? It was so much fun, and it is a great opportunity to work in a professional kitchen if you are an amateur cook. We chopped bins of cilantro and parsley (great for improving your kitchen knife skills), used a 3-foot-tall immersion blender to mash tubs of chickpeas, and used a massive standing mixer to blend all the ingredients together. It enhances the experience not knowing what you will be doing the day you volunteer. The smell of chocolate chip cookies that another group was baking that day made us wish they gave samples to the volunteers!
If you are asked to help with the portioning and packaging of food, you will be impressed with the variety and quality of the meals. Community Servings has registered dietitians who plan nutritionally-appropriate meals customized to specific medical conditions. On one occasion, we packaged a week’s worth of dinners for recipients that included chicken, beef, fish and vegetarian options. It is clear that the goal is to make the meals not only healthy, but delicious.
Working side by side with your coworkers in an environment outside of the office and having a direct impact on the welfare of so many people cannot help but build comradery. And when you are all wearing hairnets, there is no pretense. You will also have the chance to meet other volunteers and the dedicated staff who serve the community in such a meaningful way. It is a unique experience, and you will be grateful you had the opportunity to participate.
