Community Cooks is a group of more than 80 residents of Somerville, Cambridge, and the vicinity. Once a month each volunteer contributes a portion of a meal to a shelter or service program in our community. For over 17 years we have carried on this work. As old members move away, new neighbors sign up. We continue to grow and add new programs every year! Starting with a few residents on one street in Somerville, our membership base has grown to include volunteers from more than fifteen communities. Though most Community Cooks are from the Somerville/Cambridge/Belmont/Watertown area, we do have donors from as far south as Scituate and as far north as Billerica and even Southern New Hampshire! We currently deliver to six agencies/shelters, as well as coordinate two monthly food drives. Here’s how we’re organized: each participant volunteers to do ONE thing, ONCE A MONTH. You choose what you’re able to do: cook (in the comfort of your own kitchen), deliver meals, contribute items such as diapers, fruit, or cereal, or donate cash to help those who take on the larger cooking assignments. We try to make the commitment as easy as possible; we offer convenient drop-off locations and lots of back-up in case you are away one month. Volunteers sign up for four months at a time, after which they decide whether to continue, change assignments, or stop. But Community Cooks makes it so easy to help those in our own community who are struggling, that many of our cooks participate for years and years.
