We are kicking off January with new sites and volunteer opportunities. Don't forget to follow us on our new Instagram!
Hello all, I'm Carrie, the Mobile Food Shelf and Delivery Program Manager at Open Cupboard. I'm responsible for the 160+ deliveries we send out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as well as the 9 mobile food shelf sites we have.
You may have heard the exciting news, but we are launching our 7th senior mobile site! We currently have 3 sites in Woodbury and 3 in Oakdale. Our new site, Red Rock Manor, is the first site in Newport. We had the first official visit on January 18th, and everyone is excited to see us again next month.
A senior mobile site is where we visit a senior living center and bring food directly to them. Seniors can choose their own fresh produce, dry goods, dairy, meat, and bakery items. Each of these items are set up in its own section, and volunteers tell people how many items they can have and sometimes help carry groceries back up to apartments.
With our new site, we are looking for a volunteer group to "adopt" it. What that means is that every month around 6 volunteers would come to help run the mobile with me. Red Rock Manor's mobile visit will take place every 3rd Wednesday of the month and the volunteers would meet there at 12:00pm and be done around 2:30 pm. If you have a group or know a group that would be interested, please send me an email at carrie@opencupboard.org.
Cimarron Volunteers Needed!
We need some help with our Cimarron mobile program. Every 2 weeks, Open Cupboard and Valley Outreach will go to the Cimarron Mobile Home Community and serve around 150 families in the community.
With the winter weather, we have switched to a delivery-only model. We need a few volunteers to help our delivery drivers.
We would ask you to arrive at Cimarron at 3:30 pm. There you would board a NewTrax bus. You would carry a pre-packed box of food to the front door at each address. The deliveries would wrap up around 5:00 pm.
We need volunteers for: February 20th
March 20th
April 17th
Your Work is Paying Off
We served more than twice as many people!
We have finished crunching the numbers and have been busier than ever! As Shannon mentioned in the last newsletter, we have distributed over 5 million pounds (5,047,466 pounds to be precise!). To put it lightly, a lot of food has come in and out of our doors this year.
This makes sense when considering how many people have used our services in 2022. We saw 198,258 household visits which provided food to 685,052 individuals! That is enough people to fill up U.S. Bank Stadium more than 9 times. This is over twice as many people we served in 2021 and 4 times as many people we served in 2020. It is no wonder that Open Cupboard and Today's Harvest are the most visited food shelves in Minnesota.
But feeding our community would not be possible without you, our amazing volunteers. In 2022, over 700 volunteers have helped Open Cupboard and Today's Harvest sort, bag, and distribute food to those in need. Together, you have put in approximately 30,000 hours of service.
"I am very thankful for all they do for me. No judgment... Bless you all! It's great to be greeted by a smile when you think all is lost!!"
-Open Cupboard Customer
We rely on your continued work and support to run our programs. Without our volunteers, we would never be able to do the work we do and have the impact that we have. Thank you for all the energy you have put in. Your hard work has helped us rise to the ever-present need.
Do You Want to Sign Up for a Recurring Shift?
If you are a volunteer who likes to come in the same time each week but doesn't want to schedule all those shifts on your own, we can schedule a recurring shift for you! We can sign you up for the same shift each week for however long you want. If you are interested or have questions email volunteer@opencupboard.org
Meet Julie
When Julie retired at the beginning of 2013 and wanted to keep busy, she began to look for places needing help. She happened across Open Cupboard--which looked dramatically different from the Open Cupboard of today. For one thing, back in 2013, Open Cupboard was still located at the basement of Woodbury Lutheran Church. For another, 50 or 60 families served was a busy day; now we serve at least 700 families each day.
As a volunteer, Julie has found herself doing Intake for our Food Market and later the Drive-Up program. On Fridays, Julie will be in line getting information from our customers, all the while having fun. As she explains, "Seeing many folks on a regular basis is fun for me. And the dogs that come through with their owners...love that." As it gets colder, you might see Julie inside as she also sometimes helps with our Today's Harvest market on 4th Street.
For Julie, the social element of volunteering is what she loves most. "Getting to know other volunteers and our customers has been great. We work well together, work hard, but have fun too." And she especially loves it when new people come to our programs and realize how much food they get. To Julie, that helps make it all worthwhile.
When not helping with Intake, Julie loves to hang out with her dog, Charlee, and go for walks or to the dog park. She has also taken up golfing again after a 30-year hiatus. Julie loves to travel and has been to China, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and England. She also enjoys eating out--you might catch her eating a root beer float with chocolate ice cream (one of her favorite foods). And if she could go back and switch career paths, you might have seen her on TV--either as a stunt or racecar driver.
New Additions to Open Cupboard
If you have walked into Open Cupboard anytime during the last month, you might have noticed our new freezer (it is hard to miss). In late November, we finally completed the work for our new walk-in freezer. This addition will allow us to store up to 9 pallets of frozen meats, meals, and desserts without worrying about melting. This will help us expand our capacity and help limit the number of times we handle items.
We also recently got a new electric pallet jack! This one is similar to our other smaller jack and will be used by Tuc to help with his Today's Harvest North food rescue runs. As you can see, Tuc is ready to use it!
As a general reminder, please do not use a pallet jack--especially an electric one-- without some training or guidance beforehand. Grace and Shannon are currently in the process of creating some pallet jack safety training and certification.
Salute Dinner
Oak Marsh Golf Course will honor our local service men and women on February 7th for their annual Salute Dinner. Open Cupboard has been selected to receive the proceeds from the event this year. Please join us there in celebrating our local heroes. You can purchase tickets here: https://www.oakmarshevents.com/salute-dinner.aspx
Did you know that Open Cupboard and Today's Harvest are on Instagram?
When not helping with Intake, Julie loves to hang out with her dog, Charlee, and go for walks or to the dog park. She has also taken up golfing again after a 30-year hiatus. Julie loves to travel and has been to China, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and England. She also enjoys eating out--you might catch her eating a root beer float with chocolate ice cream (one of her favorite foods). And if she could go back and switch career paths, you might have seen her on TV--either as a stunt or racecar driver.
If you have walked into Open Cupboard anytime during the last month, you might have noticed our new freezer (it is hard to miss). In late November, we finally completed the work for our new walk-in freezer. This addition will allow us to store up to 9 pallets of frozen meats, meals, and desserts without worrying about melting. This will help us expand our capacity and help limit the number of times we handle items. 
