Open Hand is truly a remarkable organization. It was founded in the 1980s by a couple of guys who started cooking 14 meals a day out of their apartment to feed their friends suffering from HIV and AIDS. Fast forward now to 2010 where the process is mainstream and streamline.
Opens Hand has non-profit and for-profit business branches that essentially serve the same product. They make healthy, nutritionally balanced, pre-proportioned meals. The non-profit focuses on serving meals to individuals with special nutrition needs like those with diabetes, AIDS and HIV. The for-profit serves the same meals to people looking for a diet program with meals that are delivered. Cool model, huh? The for-profit actually helps keep the non-profit up and running which is just smart business.
Cooks make large vats of food (usually a protein dish and two veggie side dishes) and volunteers package them into TV tray style containers. Our job was to package tuna casserole, lima beans, and asparagus into the dishes (I was on lima bean duty) and then put the trays onto a conveyor belt where they were wrapped. Afterward, we did the same process but with noodles, chicken and sauce, peas and mixed greens. After just 3hrs we packaged 695 meals. Go us!
Take a break from the seriousness of life.
There is good news too for all of those interested or already eating Open Hand meals. Open Hand had the most intense sanitation policies ever! All hair had to be cover (ponytails and hair nets. Men even had to wear nets that covered their beards.), hands washed, gloves, aprons, closed toed shoes and here was the biggie for us, no jewelry, period. This proved a little difficult for me and Willen. I have a bunch of hippie jewelry that is just tied on and never comes off and ol’ Willen has some ancient Chinese protective symbol around his neck that is not suppose to come off either. We made it work in the end though.
For more information, visit their website at: http://www.projectopenhand.org
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