When I look back on this past year, I am filled with pride for how our community came together to financially support the relocation of our campus to 1380 W Marietta St NW. I am equally proud of our Board Members, staff and volunteers who also contributed greatly to the successful move we achieved, which was no small feat. The logistics alone for disassembling a commercial kitchen and then reassembling it, without interrupting meal production or client deliveries, was a heavy lift. But working together, we prevailed!
Now that we are on our new campus, we are already seeing a number of huge strides forward for our mission. Our teaching kitchen is filled with students who are learning how to prepare meals in a healthy manner and how to better understand what defines nutrition. We are also benefiting from the streamlining of our meal production processes that our new campus affords us. With more freezer space, loading docks, and dedicated areas for our volunteers, we get more efficient at cooking, packing, and delivering our medically tailored meals every day.
This year we also made great progress launching our new workforce development program, WOODS (Where Opportunity Opens Doors to Success). Named after our visionary former Executive Director, Stephen Woods, WOODS gives individuals who are underemployed the opportunity to learn all aspects of food production and gain the skills needed for a meaningful career path. Our first cohort of classes will begin in January 2025 for young men and women who are being served by the Covenant House, a highly respected community partner and neighbor, that serves youth who have been homeless.
In addition to our traditional client referral partners whom we greatly value, 2025 is the year we look forward to realizing our decade-long strategic goal of being the preferred nutrition provider for health plans and managed care organizations (MCOs), who are beginning to offer our services as a benefit for their members. In securing these partnerships we will be able to serve more people in need of our services than ever before, and will solidify Open Hand as the preferred provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition counseling in the state of Georgia.
As always, none of these achievements would be possible without the tremendous help of our volunteers, donors and partners. To each, I give heartfelt thanks and best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday.
Cheers to 2025!
-Matthew Pieper, CEO