Here We Grow Again!

The Open Door is pleased to announce a $1.7M capital campaign to acquire 26 Emerson Avenue (the old food coop) and build a new commercial production kitchen. The project will add cold and dry storage, enhance client service areas, increase transportation capacity, and improve the living environment for low and moderate-income populations. The quiet phase was completed at the end of the calendar year with 90% pledged or received.

Commercial Production Kitchen
A brand new, state of the art teaching and production kitchen will be used to prepare fresh meals daily for our programs. From Community Meals, to Healthy choice. Easy Choice meals, to Senior Soup and Salad, partially prepped, fully prepped and grab ‘n go items, the kitchen will be able to increase production and utilize more food rescue product for distribution. Home to our On Your Mark youth training program, the kitchen will become an experiential learning classroom.

Nutrition Counseling/Training/Classroom Space
The Open Door is strategically focused on health outcomes through nutrition education and individual nutrition counseling. This new space will provide ample space for private counseling, workshops and training activites open to our clients and the public.

Service Access
Connecting our existing warehouse to the new addition and building, a service hallway will allow safe passage for food headed to the kitchen. Current conditions require wending through a small office and the dining room in order to reach the kitchen.

Cold Storage for Kitchen
Our current kitchen is served by a shared cooler space in the main warehouse. A new dedicated cold storage unit will be used exclusively for the kitchen and easily accessible from the warehouse.

Dishwashing Room/Laundry Room
The new plan allows for our dishwashing area to be completely separate from the food prep area. In our current configuration, dirty dishes are not far from the food prep areas.

Dry Storage
Additional dry storage space in the new building will allow for us to take advantage of leverage buying or larger donations. It also enables us to repurpose some existing space for processing food rescue donations in a dedicated space.

Transportation Capacity
The Open Door refrigerated truck is on the road 5 days a week picking up food from grocers and growers in the Greater Boston area. This vehicle, key to food acquisition, has aged out, and will be replaced with a 16 ft. refrigerated truck with a lift gate and increased capacity to pick up food.

Innovative Growth: Medically Tailored Groceries (MTG)
Strategically positioned to work with healthcare providers to offer medical nutrition therapy coupled with Medically Tailored Groceries, the new building offers capacity for innovation and growth at the intersection of nutrition and healthcare.

Flexible Space and Capacity
The new building will house our two electric kilns used to fire bowls year round for the Empty Bowl project that engages hundreds of people each year.

Last year, The Open Door improved the lives and health of 8,287 unduplicated people from 3,686 households with 2,050,168 pounds of food (1,708,473 meals) during 50,802 visits.

For more information, or to give an amount more than $5,000 please contact: campaign@foodpantry.org.

The Open Door is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt organization. Donations and contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law. #22-2513482