Opportunity
Since the 1990s, Boston-based nonprofit Community Servings had been preparing and delivering meals to anyone experiencing one or more critical or chronic illnesses. A growing unmet need for medically tailored meals led Community Servings to expand their production capacity. They launched a campaign to fund a proposed 31,000-square foot “meal campus” that would help them triple their meal production, increase their volunteer capacity, and host a Food & Health Policy Center focused on replicating and scaling their model nationally.
Insight
By meeting the needs of chronically ill patients and establishing the policy center, Community Servings could both directly serve their clients and transform how people think of food, care, and medical needs. To help meet those needs, the Manton Foundation established a dynamic funding approach that helped Community Servings navigate both big opportunities and unforeseen challenges.
The Manton Foundation’s first grant to the campaign was a $1 million matching challenge. This helped enormously with the momentum of the campaign, motivating potential donors and the board members. Separately, the Manton Foundation provided an unrestricted COVID grant that helped Community Servings continue serving people during a tumultuous global moment. When the need for expansion went beyond their Boston hub, the Manton Foundation also provided support for their Mansfield location.
