What's New This Week!

SPEAKER: Melissa Miller, Development & Communications Manger

TOPIC:  The Open Door Pantry

Melissa joined The Open Door from a long background in the world of nonprofit arts! She carries a bachelors and masters in Theatre Education and loves to get out to shows in the Twin Cities. She lives in Hopkins with her partner Nathan. They spend a lot of their free time exploring Minnesota by bike! She is also a crossword-puzzle enthusiast, avid hiker, and absolute foodie. She is excited to get to contribute to the mission of The Open Door and get food into the hands of those that need it!​

The Open Door provides food support for low-income individuals and families across Dakota County. Through our collective programs, The Open Door distributed more than 2.6 million pounds of food in 2022 – 64% of which was fresh and/or perishable.

Four programs make up The Open Door’s approach: 

• A fixed-site pantry in Eagan, providing appointments to clients seeking food assistance.
• The Mobile Pantry Program, Dakota County’s only traveling food distribution which brings food to 30 different low-income apartment complexes, senior living facilities, churches, community centers, and schools each month.
• The Mobile Lunchbox Program works with School District partners to deliver meals to students in low-income neighborhoods during the summer months. In 2021 volunteers deliver over 40,000 meals to 26 different neighborhoods across 4 school districts.  
• The Garden to Table Program helps clients harvest their own food at 12 locations with more than 300 garden plots. Garden to Table provides seeds, starter plants, tools, and coaching to clients.

All fines collected will be used to support local organizations such as 360 Communities, The Open Door, MOMS, etc.

For the meeting of January 3, 2024 there are 25 cards and 3 Jokers. The pot stands at $742.00. Ticket donations are: $1 for 1 ticket; $2 for 3 tickets; $3 for 5 tickets; $5 for 10 tickets; and $10 for 25 tickets. Three lucky winners are chosen each week; the first two tickets drawn win $5, the third winner draws a card from the deck in hopes of pulling an Ace to win a share of the pot.  If a joker is pulled, it will cost the winner a $2 contribution to the pot.  If the Ace of Spades is pulled, the pot is awarded equally to all who have pulled an Ace from the current deck, and the drawing starts over again.