Open Arms of Minnesota

The patients of Open Arms are one of the many reasons this organization is so successful. Open Arms takes caring for others to a whole new level, by not only helping those in need, but by zeroing in on those with specific, life altering medical conditions. Open Arms tailors their services to those with AIDS/HIV, Multiple Sclerosis, COPD, Cancer, Renal Insufficiencies, and most recently COVID, just to name a few.

Open Arms stands out for a multitude of reasons, but what sets them apart from other community resources is their commitment to servicing not only the patient, but their caregivers and dependents as well. This is an incredible undertaking, and an expensive one at that. Their services are entirely free, with only one requirement-a provider's referral. This referral must be renewed once a year in order to continue using their service. Currently, Open Arms is serving roughly 1,100 patients and their families each week. Now offering free delivery, Open Arms has been able to expand their services to more than 100 zip codes in the state of Minnesota.

I recently spoke with Emily Szeliga, Emily is a client advocate, who is responsible for the client program enhancements at Open Arms. Emily plays an integral role in helping patients not only discover what services best fit their current needs but can offer support and resources in other aspects of their life as well. Emily was able to walk me through the process of how a client becomes involved with Open Arms, diet recommendations, and what follow up is needed to continue using Open Arms for their services.

Open Arms is fortunate to have several dietitians available to assist patients with determining the best diet to meet their needs. A patient’s diet can vary greatly depending on the condition they are faced with. For example, there are heart healthy diets, renal diets, diets that are geared towards patient’s fighting cancer, bland diets and so on. No one patient is the same, and this is where their dietitians come into play. Once a patient has gone through the application process and has a medical professional send in their referral. The next step is to meet with a dietician to best determine which meal plan suits them the best. Some patients may be more familiar with their illness and are able to navigate their food selection on their own, for others who are facing a new diagnosis, a dietician can offer them wonderful advice along with answering a variety of questions. Receiving a life altering diagnosis can be overwhelming to say the least, so having a group of individuals who are available to answer all of their questions, and provide general support and information, can mean the world to someone.

Meals are delivered on a weekly basis. Patients have the option of picking their food up at the Open Arms facility or opting for free delivery. For food that is delivered, these items are flash frozen and packaged safely to ensure all food is delivered as fresh as possible. Each diet is color coded to ensure that meals are not delivered to the wrong patients, this also makes identifying a problem easy for the patient as well. For example, if they usually receive their food in red bags, but suddenly they receive their food in pink bags, they know that something isn’t right, and can call to have the issue corrected. In 2021, Open Arms delivered 793,873 meals to their clients. This not only includes 14 meals per week that a majority of the clients receive, but also additional items such as birthday cakes, Thanksgiving dinners, nausea care packages, and blizzard boxes.

Not only does Open Arms provide delivery services to the entire state of Minnesota, but this is all at no cost to the patient. This is an incredible accomplishment all on its own! To help off put the cost of produce, Open Arms has what is known as Open Farms. Open Farms includes 5 organic urban gardens throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Afton. Last year alone they were able to harvest roughly 14,000 lbs of vegetables and herbs. Everything that was harvested went directly towards feeding their clients. All of the meals are made in house, which means not only are these meals healthy, but tasty as well!

The impact that Open Arms has had on the community is like nothing that I have ever experienced. The dedication, love and attention that goes into the meals, planning, and patient care is what other organizations should strive for. I Highly recommend stopping by Open Arms to learn more about what they do, and what they have to offer. You will truly be surprised by how amazing this organization is.

The Open Arms of Minnesota is a non-profit organization founded in 1986. Their focus is to provide a simple need for people within the community who are vulnerable or have a life-threatening illness, unable to provide themselves with meals or food on the table. This organization mainly runs its packages with lots of volunteers. Through their volunteers, people on the kitchen staff, packaging, and delivery drivers can make this non-profit service be provided for everyone. St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul is the primary collaborator with them in the Empty Bowls Project, where all of the students, staff, and others within their community make clays in raising funds and awareness for Open Arms. Additionally, our student body has volunteered at Open Arms to help out this organization that recognizes this service's demand for the volunteer-run community to make this service sustainable.

Through the direct connections, the process and system of packaging meals, creating recipes, and delivering meals was an interest in Open Arms. Sarah Cohen, one of the dietetic technicians, was able to share and speak about the process of applying to outsource meals to clients at Open Arms.

Caring for Clients and Caring Meals

Sarah starts by explaining the application process when new clients fill out their dietary and medical needs to meet the standards of their medical provider. As she receives that application, they compile them and ask them what types of food or other demographics they would like to have within their meals. This amount of information and data is also helpful in looking at their community demographics to serve meals and help funders see this awareness to assist this organization continuously. Furthermore, seeing the meals that are being delivered and exported, a color-coding system indicates the type of diet that the client is on, like low-sodium, renal for hemodialysis patients, and flavor neutral bland & soft foods for chewing or swallowing problems. Moreover, the technicians also pack nausea care packages if the clients still have trouble swallowing or chewing down their meals. Of course, other dietetic technicians like Sarah are aware of other allergies or other food restrictions like gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian options for clients. After delivering meals to the client, the dietetic technicians record the trends and patterns that clients eat. They have feedback surveys to send back to the dietician and continue to accommodate their needs within their meals. For instance, if clients ate a particular meal more often, they would continue to deliver it and respect what they wanted. Another example would be in identifying and modifying meals as they are provided to them. The survey plays a vital role in helping clients give them more satisfaction and be flexible with their needs.

Another point that Sarah explained about the client’s dietary needs is their delivery systems and their food quality control. Cohen explains that their recipes are derived from a food processors’ database that certifies the ingredients that the chefs use. There’s a collaborative process between the chefs and the dietitians to brainstorm ideas for a dish, then analyze and modify it to make it for clients.

Delivering Meals and COVID-19

Of course, Open Arms recognizes that delivering meals must be flexible and accommodating to clients; that can be very convenient to pick up meals and ship them. Recently, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Open Arms was in even more of higher demand due to clients being impacted financially and unable to sustain or can’t afford to have food on the table. As staff understood this concern, quality chain management and dietetics teams had to test out their meal shipments by exporting their boxes to their homes via UPS and observing the outcomes. Sarah had mentioned that it was a trial and error run that took multiple tries to ensure that it was efficient and well to ship out meals in the Twin Cities but to other parts of Minnesota.

The volunteers and organization at Open Arms recognize this demand in being able to help out to give meals at any given time, especially in times when clients turn for their help as they are vulnerable themselves in situations that are unpredictable & unpreventable. Gladly, St. Kate’s was able to be a part of supporting this mission and be able to bring awareness to our community and serve with Open Arms. In having the Empty Bowl Projects at our institution, our student body is ready and willing to help impact our community in identifying this need.

This semester, I’ve been focusing on food insecurity in St. Catherine’s Global Search for Justice class. St. Kate’s has partnered with Open Arms since 2010, when they started their Empty Bowls project. Open Arms donated soup for Empty Bowls over the years to help feed the community and raise funds for food resources. With my professors’ guidance and support, I’ve been able to make my own connections with the Open Arms in Minnesota, to see how I can assist with local food insecurity.

Aside from learning about Open Arms programs and touring the facility, I was able to connect with a couple of team members to see who Open Arms is, who they can offer support, and if there’s room for expansion within neighboring communities.

I first connected with Anna Irmiter, the client and community outreach manager, and learned about the program’s medical focus and non-profit benefits. She explained that Open Arms receives funding from corporate sponsors, such as 3M, for their meals. Meals are for those who have medical needs, or are aged 60 and older, along with their household family members and/or caretakers (does not need to be listed on address). Qualifying conditions include HIV/AIDS, cancer, MS, ALS, ESRD, Congestive heart failure, or COPD; and these meals can be delivered or picked up.

Open Arms offers a 12-week program for those with COVID, unstable diabetes, chronic-Crohn’s, organ/medical transplants, or chronic kidney disease. They can help with faxing requests for records to doctors for the individual application process; and they connect clients to long-term programs afterward.

I also spoke with Megan White at Open Arms. She says, currently, they have been located at 2500 Bloomington Ave, Minneapolis, for approximately 11 years. Prior to this, they were located off of Franklin Ave. Megan explained that the client focus is on those with critical and medical needs; but they work side-by-side with many of the community businesses and help connect clients with other local resources. Megan shared that they are established with the Phillip’s Community Center and the Little Earth Community Center, and service their summer meal programs, which are more kid-friendly menus. They are also actively working to partner with more local people/businesses to achieve more culturally specific foods and diets.

During COVID-19, she said Open Arms responded by converting from hot meals to frozen meals to reduce germ spreading; though, they are hoping to return to hot meals soon.

It is easy to forget about other people's struggles when those same struggles don't affect you. When people think about other individuals' struggles, it is usually about whether they have a home, are financially stable, or have family problems. People don't often think about other struggles, such as debilitating diseases, food insecurity, and the issues with both of those problems. One organization that does not forget about those two critical health problems is the non-profit organization Open Arms.

Open Arms of Minnesota is a non-profit that cooks and delivers free, nutritious meals to people living with life-threatening illnesses in the Twin Cities (Open Arms). Their services include medically tailored meals, nutrition education, counseling, convenient home deliveries, nutritious ingredients, no preservatives made in our kitchen, care for clients and family, and a community of kindness and love (Open Arms).

Open Arms was founded by Bill Rowe in 1986, who started it all in his very own kitchen in his apartment. He delivered the food he created to a few men who were living with AIDS that could not cook for themselves. Open Arms started as a program that created meals for individuals with AIDS but after 20 years of just serving those individuals. In 2005, they opened their arms and now serve people living with cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), their caregivers, and dependents (Open Arms). In 2010, they moved to a more prominent location because their organization grew larger. This new location allowed them to serve more community members impacted by life-threatening diseases. In 2011, Open arms created an "Open farms" program that allowed them to grow their own produce and herbs. In 2018, they opened their arms wider to expand their services to individuals and families suffering from ESRD, CHF, and COPD. In the same year, they launched their medically tailored program. This program provides medically tailored food for an individual's medical needs. In 2020, due to COVID 19, they started shipping medically tailored meals to individuals in greater Minnesota, making them rethink their process (Open Arms).

Their clients are specific; the individuals served by Open Arms are diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses, such as HIV/AIDs, cancer, MS, ALS, ESRD, CHF, or COPD. Individuals with compromised nutritional status and difficulty accessing or preparing healthy foods. Individuals who are not eligible for shipping must live within the 494/694 loop and can pick up meals at our facility. Not everyone can qualify for this type of program, and most people are given referrals to this organization from their physicians. However, if a person truly thinks they would benefit from this program, they can reach out to Open Arms and speak with an individual about it. In 2021, Open Arms served 793,873 meals to 3,757 clients.

Volunteering is what makes Open Arms what it is. "Open Arms is powered by passionate, dedicated volunteers "(Open Arms). Volunteers prepare and package the meals in the kitchens. They grow and collect food at the five farming locations, and they deliver over 19,000 meals to over 1,400 clients per week. In 2021, Open Arms had 6,600 volunteers who donated 62,000 hours to support the organization (Open Arms).

Open Arms' mission is to nourish body, mind, and soul. Their purpose is to build a joyful and nourishing community that provides medically tailored meals and hope for people experiencing a significant health crisis or living with a life-threatening illness. Their values include Abundance, Social Responsibility, Community, Innovation & Hope. Two of the values directly connect to St. Kates's Community & Social Justice values. The St. Kate's Empty Bowls project is an excellent example of those values because it focuses on the sense of community and creating an environment of equity and equality.

Open Arms and St. Kates are not only connected through their core values but also the St. Kate's Empty Bowls project. In which St. Kates creates bowls to raise money for Open Arms. St. Kate's first connected with Open Arms in 2010 when the ceramics club wanted to join and start a St. Kate's Empty Bowls project. They researched organizations that helped individuals with food insecurity and found Open Arms. Based on information from Megan White of Open Arms. She stated, "what drew the ceramics club to open arms was that they were not only inspired by them supporting someone who was ill but also supporting their whole household."

Open Arms is an essential part of the empty bowl project. It defines the type of communities we are supporting and how those communities connect to the St. Kate's community. It shows us how far an organization can go with its workers' dedication and volunteers. It enables St. Kates to grow their sense of community, allowing us to help others. At the same time, we are combating food insecurity, bringing awareness to it, and bringing awareness to the difficulties of living with chronic, life-threatening diseases because it is easy to forget other people's struggles when they don't affect you.