Open Arms Celebrates Grand Opening of New Location
Nonprofit delivers its two millionth meal to people in the Twin Cities living with chronic illness
MINNEAPOLIS, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Arms, the non-profit organization that provides nutritious meals for people living with chronic and life-threatening diseases, announces the delivery of its two millionth meal and the grand opening celebration of its new building on Saturday, June 12.
Grand opening activities include tours of the building, a picnic meal, installation of a time capsule, and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Festivities run from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 with the ribbon cutting ceremony at noon. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has proclaimed June 12 as "Open Arms of Minnesota Day" in the City of Minneapolis. Open Arms is located at 2500 Bloomington Avenue South in Minneapolis (between Franklin Avenue and Lake Street).
Since 1986, Open Arms has relied on volunteers to prepare and deliver healthy meals for people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2005, its mission was expanded to include those suffering with diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and other potentially life-threatening illnesses. It took 19 years for Open Arms to prepare and deliver its first million meals, and only five years to deliver another million meals.
To accommodate this dramatic increase in service, in 2007, Open Arms announced an $8.1 million capital campaign to construct a new building and expand programming. Despite the Great Recession, Open Arms successfully completed its campaign and has been operating from its new facility in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis since March. The grand opening celebration will offer the community its first chance to tour the award-wining building, including the state-of-the-art "Cargill Community Kitchen," which came about as a result of Cargill's long-term financial and volunteer support for Open Arms.
In 2010, Open Arms will rely on 1,400 volunteers to prepare and deliver a record-breaking 350,000 meals locally. Private donors will contribute $1.7 million towards Open Arms' $2 million annual budget.
For more information, please visit www.openarmsmn.org.
SOURCE Open Arms
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