Happy New Year from The Open Door!

Our team has spent the first few weeks of the New Year looking back on the most helpful and impactful year in our history. As we compiled the details of just what you have helped us accomplish, we wanted you to know the impact of your decision to invest in our mission: you helped our team help more of our neighbors than ever before. The following paragraphs will give you insight into what your donations, your volunteer hours, and your advocacy efforts accomplished in 2021.

The Big Picture

As a whole, The Open Door provided more food to more people than any year in our history! You helped us supply 10% more food to our visitors than we did in 2020 when the pandemic began. Collectively, our programs provided 2.9 million pounds of fresh and healthy food to community members across Dakota County. Your support helped us sustain a level of support that was unthinkable only two years ago.

From the reliable stability of the Eagan Pantry, to the 12 different Garden to Table sites, to the innovative Mobile Pantry Program creating access in senior buildings and food deserts, to delivering more than 40,000 meals to students in 26 different neighborhoods during the summer, The Open Door served somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 individuals every single month! Our new normal has become consistently double what our pre-pandemic levels of support were.

Breaking Records in Volunteerism

In 2021 TOD Volunteers donated 36,623 hours to the organization. That is the equivalent of 17 full-time employees! Our operations are supported by 30-100 volunteers EVERY DAY, with additional volunteers guiding our strategic work and showing up for The Open Door in your networks and businesses.

871 individuals volunteered at The Open Door in 2021, with 370 brand new volunteers joining our efforts. We are so thankful for this growing core team of devoted sorters, stockers, food rescue drivers, gardeners, and client attendants. We hope to see all of you (and your friends!) in 2022! Click Here to Get Involved!

Fun & Fundraising

Your financial support has helped us continue to do more as more has been needed!  After a never-before-seen outpouring of support in 2020, our donors stood with us again in 2021.  Your continued commitment has been THE reason we have been able to sustain our remarkable expansion of support over the last two years, and the reason we are planning to do even more in 2022.

Your dollars help us purchase needed food items, carry out the logistical efforts of Mobile Food Distribution, maintain our pantry and garden locations, and employ a small staff that keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.  You fueled every aspect of an organization that provided support to families more than 55,000 times last year in more than 50 different locations.  Your support made lives better for thousands right here in Dakota County!

Because of your generosity The Open Door is now poised to EXPAND programming in 2022 to take on additional Mobile Pantry sites and grow our impact in Dakota County. Stay tuned for updates on where we’re headed next and how you can be a part of getting us there!

Looking Ahead

Since 2019 our team has made room for more than 50,000 people who had never been to The Open Door before.  We have expanded our services to create capacity for so many families impacted by the economic and medical realities of this pandemic.  Two years in, we have emerged a stronger and more determined organization.  We have a waiting list of low-income Senior Living Buildings, Elementary Schools, and Neighborhoods who have requested our help in making healthy food more accessible for their residents.  This year we set our sights on finding ways to continue building capacity to add more sites, feed more people, and ensure that everyone in Dakota County has access to fresh and healthy food. Thank you for being a part of our team, however you support The Open Door. We’re proud to fight local hunger alongside you.