Open Hand was founded in 1988 by a small group of friends who gathered to prepare and deliver home-cooked meals to neighbors who were living with HIV/AIDS. Since its founding, the organization has grown into the largest provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition education in the Southeast with a mission to prevent and manage chronic disease through tailored nutrition interventions. Today, Open Hand serves 29 Georgia counties and provides over 5,000 daily meals to low-income residents living with diet-related chronic disease (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, heart disease), homebound seniors, and low-income youth and families. The organization offers a wide variety of medically tailored meal plans as well as nutrition counseling and coaching by a team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists. All services are provided at no cost to clients.
Open Hand currently operates out of a 30,000-sq. ft. facility on Armour Drive that lacks adequate docks, cooler/freezer, warehouse, and meal production space to meet growing demand for Open Hand’s services. Moving into a larger headquarter facility located in the Grove Park/Westside neighborhood will allow Open Hand to operate from a more central location within its service area and adequately house its expanding programs.
The AEMI NMTC transaction will support the renovation of a two-story, 43,000-sq. ft. industrial building adjacent to Westside Park that will serve as Open Hand’s main facility and allow the organization to expand its healthy foods-focused work. The facility includes 11,000 sq. ft. of cold storage, 5,500 sq. ft. of dry storage space, a 6,500 sq. ft. commercial kitchen, and 8 loading dock bays (7 more than they currently have). The project also includes a new teaching kitchen for food service training and nutrition center/healthy foods pantry to support new programs. Open Hand will be able to increase the number of individuals served by this program from 4,500 to over 9,000 annually.
Open Hand’s new facility will support the expansion of its Food is Medicine nutrition education program. Courses are taught by Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and designed to teach low-income individuals about healthy eating behaviors appropriate to their medical condition. Topics range from healthy eating habits, gardening, and hands-on food prep to exercise, goal setting, and disease self-management. Open Hand also offers targeted education programs including Medical Nutrition Therapy and Telenutrition to serve low-income individuals who need more intensive one-on-one nutrition counseling or live in rural areas. The new facility will allow Open Hand to provide these programs to 8,000 individuals annually.