SCOOP The - Open Arms Of Minnesota

theSCOOPA P U B L I C AT I O N O F O P E N A R M S O F M I N N E S O TAFA L L 2 015ONE SPECTACULARSEPTEMBER WEEKIn this issue, you’ll read about a week full of record-breaking events, learn about a few of thepeople who make our work possible, and savor an award-winning recipe for your holiday table fromExecutive Chef Steven Howard.pg.3A Client Gives Back4pg.Update from the OpenArms Program Teampg.8Cranberry PoppyseedBread Recipe

Setting New Records withthe Help of our CommunityBy Leah Hébert Welles, Executive DirectorThere are days and weeks at Open Arms that stop me in my tracks as I realizehow grateful I am to be part of this wonderful organization. Friday, September 25was one of those days, bringing one of those incredible weeks to a close.That Friday, our building was abuzz with staff and volunteers preparing to kick offour second annual Cook-a-Thon. As we got the kitchen ready for our first shift ofvolunteers—30 of the eventual 287 participants who would fill our kitchen aroundthe clock in the following 24 hours—I stopped to help a client who was picking upher meals for the week.She was stopping on her way to her weekly chemo treatments for stage fourcancer. Watching the hubbub of activity in the building, she marveled at the ideaof the Cook-a-Thon, and shared with me the incredible difference the meals fromOpen Arms make in her life. She hugged me and asked me to thank all of thewonderful volunteers and staff at Open Arms. As she got into her car, she toldme how lucky she felt to be alive that day.Executive Director LeahHébert Welles can bereached at 612-767-7344or leah@openarmsmn.org.Walking back into the building (after wiping a few tears from my eyes), I wasreminded of the real impact we have on our clients’ lives, and what an importantplace Open Arms is for so many. This interaction made the next 24 hours of ourCook-a-Thon all the more meaningful, and put the success of the Cook-a-Thoninto even greater perspective.5 80,000 RAISED150 GOLFERS5 NEWSPONSORSBy the time our new Executive Chef Steven Howard and I performed theceremonial carrot-cutting to start the Cook-a-Thon, generous individuals andcorporate sponsors had helped Open Arms raise more than 100,000 tosupport our clients—the equivalent of more than two weeks worth of meals forour more than 850 clients. And by the time our final vegetable was chopped andour last soup was packaged, we had prepared more than 10,000 meals in ourkitchen in just one day!What makes that Friday of the Cook-a-Thon even more incredible is that itwasn’t the only big day that week. A few days earlier on Monday, we hostedan incredible group of supporters at the fifth annual Open Arms Golf Classic,raising over 80,000 of funding to help our clients. Combined, we were able toclose the books on nearly 200,000 of support for our work in just one week,while preparing and packaging over 20,000 meals!Without the support of community members like you, none of the incrediblework we do at Open Arms would be possible. As we head into the colder wintermonths, which are always our busiest, we are already seeing an increase in thenumber of clients we are serving. We anticipate having another record-settingnumber of clients in the weeks to come, and our team is so grateful for yoursupport. Thank you for all you do to help us nourish more and more clients everyday—we can’t do it without you!“We were able to close the books on nearly 200,000 of support for our work in just one week!”openarmsmn.org page 2

100,000 574RAISEDVOLUNTEER HOURS10,000 MEALS PREPAREDIncluding:2,350 soups and salads4,650 baked goods50 TEAMS287 PARTICIPANTSA Client Gives BackOpen Arms client Rod connects with fellow clients through volunteering.Writer and playwright Rod was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2007, an event fullof worry and uncertainty. “I’ll never forget the day I found out,” said Rod. “It feltlike my life had changed overnight.”Shortly after his diagnosis, Rod found Open Arms and began receiving meals.“Having Open Arms changed everything,” he recalled about that time period.“I was so relieved–meals were one less thing for me to deal with at that time in mylife. It was huge blessing.”Not long after becoming a client, Rod decided to begin volunteering at OpenArms. “The services were so amazing that I wanted to give back,” he said.Seven years later, he has donated more than 1,100 hours of service and stillvolunteers every week. He especially loves serving as a receptionist, where hegets to interact with fellow clients. He describes the particular joy of meetingclients who come to Open Arms to pick up their food: “It’s that feeling you getwhen you say, ‘Oh good morning, here’s your food,’ and they smile. One of thegreatest things I found about living with HIV is that if you help out other people ina similar situation, it makes your illness easier to cope with.”Rod currently works as a freelance writer and editor, which gives him the freedomto pay attention to his health as well. In between writing plays, working at filmfestivals and collaborating on projects with other playwrights, Rod prioritizes hisvolunteer shifts at Open Arms to keep giving back to the organization that wasthere for him in a time of need.“Everybody here, from the volunteers to the staff and everyone in between, realizesour mission is to put food on the table for people who need it,” he said. “There’sjust an atmosphere of goodness that I don’t experience in any other place.”openarmsmn.org page 3“Open Arms is an amazingplace. The people that workhere, the volunteers, theclients. It just has a specialplace in my heart.”

Update from the Open Arms Program TeamBy April Bogard, Senior Director of ProgramsSettling into my role asthe Senior Director ofPrograms over the pastsix months—a new positioncreated this year to overseethe kitchen, client services,nutrition and farm teams—I have been amazed by thework of Open Arms on adaily basis. Hearing thatwe prepare, package anddeliver nearly 10,000 mealsevery week was one thing;seeing it actually happenon a daily basis is quiteanother thing entirely!As I write this, we are serving a record-breaking number ofclients: we will deliver meals to 910 clients this week alone!Heading into the colder winter months, we anticipate continuingto break that record on a regular basis—which means that OpenArms will be serving more than three times the number of clientsevery week than we served just five years ago when we movedinto our current facility.Learning how to serve more and more clients has been a realarea of development for our staff, and we have adapted to handlethe growth. From streamlined delivery procedures to a new teamin our kitchen led by Executive Chef Steven Howard, we areexcited to be exploring this expanding frontier, serving our clientswith the best fresh-made, delicious and nutritious meals possible.“Our kitchen is onceagain fully staffedby top restauranttrained chefs withexperience in someof the Twin Cities’best eateries andcatering companies.”Always one of the strengths of our program team, our kitchen isonce again fully staffed by top restaurant-trained chefs (picturedbelow) with experience in some of the Twin Cities’ best eateriesand catering establishments, including Travail, Victory 44, Lucia’s,Create Catering and D’Amico Catering. Executive Chef Stevenbrings decades of experience leading restaurant, catering andbakery kitchens, and we know our clients will continue to bethrilled by the quality and care put into their meals every week byour talented chefs and dedicated volunteers. The kitchen teamalso has their eyes set on a number of new opportunities to sharetheir expertise with our community of supporters, so stay tunedfor new and tasty opportunities to enjoy our food as well!We continue to focus on providing our clients with an excellentexperience, and have added a client services associate, KiellKosberg, to better support our clients throughout their time withOpen Arms. Combined with new client evaluation data from thisyear, our client services team and our dietitian Gwenda Hill arebuilding on the strong relationships we have with our clients toensure we are nourishing them to every extent possible.Our kitchen and client services teams are working together andserving more clients than ever before, and we know none of thisimportant work would be possible without the incredible supportwe receive from our community of volunteers. Thank you forworking with us every day to serve our clients!The Open Arms kitchen team, left to right: Chef Logan, Sous Chef Zachary, Chef Bob,Executive Chef Steven, Pastry Manager Annamarie and Chef Kaylyn.openarmsmn.org page 4

A Student Finds Community at Open ArmsOpen Arms volunteer Andrew began volunteering through a college course and kept coming back.Raised in Rochester, Andrew moved to Minneapolis in 2009 to study chemistryat the University of Minnesota. He signed up to volunteer at Open Arms for aservice learning class in his freshman year, but ended up staying long after thecourse ended due to the positive volunteer experience and relationships he found.“Open Arms has a tendency to attract very kind, selfless volunteers, and verydedicated staff,” Andrew explained. “That’s part of what makes Open Arms soeffective at keeping people coming back.”In his five years of volunteering, Andrew has contributed more than 750 hoursof service across many volunteer roles, including meal delivery, event supportand kitchen work. He likes that the work has a tangible benefit that’s easy to see.“Some clients depend on the food that you bring. It’s integral to a lot of thesepeople’s lives,” he said.This summer Andrew decided to move back to Rochester for continuingmedical education and a new job as an EMT, but he plans to return to OpenArms whenever he visits the Twin Cities. “Open Arms is not just a nonprofit,” heremarked. “It’s a community of people, and I think that’s really what keeps us allcoming back.”“My time is valuable to me, so I choose whereit goes, and I find Open Arms a very valuableplace to me and to the community.”A MENU OF GIVING OPTIONSDid you know your giving equates to measurable support for our clients? Consider generously supporting our clients at one ofthese levels using the attached donation envelope or by visiting www.openarmsmn.org/donate.SPONSOR ATYPICAL DAYOF DELIVERIESSPONSOR ACLIENT FORA YEARSPONSOR ATYPICAL DELIVERYROUTE FOR A WEEKSPONSOR ACLIENT FORA WEEK 6,750 2,330 500 45Provide 150 clients witha week’s worth of meals.Provide one of our clients withan entire year’s worth of meals.Provide all of the clients ona typical delivery route witha week’s worth of meals.Provide one of our clients witha week’s worth of meals.openarmsmn.org page 5