2025 In Review, As Told On Social Media
2025 was a year defined by resilience and the unwavering strength of community at Open Arms of Minnesota. Amid a changing funding landscape and growing need, we remained steadfast in our mission to deliver nourishing, medically tailored meals to Minnesotans living with critical illness.
Throughout the year, our community showed up in powerful ways. Volunteers packed, baked, planted, delivered, celebrated, and advocated alongside us—from classrooms and corporate partners to first-time helpers and longtime champions. Signature moments like Moveable Feast, Volunteer Appreciation Week, TOAST!, Twin Cities Pride, the Twin Cities Marathon, YESvember/Turkey Drive, and the Great Minnesota Bake Sale brought people together in support of our clients, raising critical funds and awareness.
We also marked meaningful milestones and moments of recognition, including earning Candid’s Platinum Seal of Transparency, being named a Minnesota’s Best Gold Winner for Place to Volunteer, receiving the Commissioner’s Circle of Excellence Award from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, and being honored for Innovation at the Minnesota Nonprofit Mission Awards. New partnerships—such as our collaboration with Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge—expanded our reach, while continued advocacy at the state and national level reinforced the importance of medically tailored meals.
There is so much to reflect on and celebrate from the past year. Here’s a look back at 2025, as told through some of the stories, moments, and milestones we shared on social media.
January
We’re thrilled to announce that Open Arms of Minnesota has earned a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid! This recognition highlights our commitment to building trust, sharing impact, and showing how your support makes a difference.
Our 2023-24 Impact Report is here! This year, we’ve celebrated growth, innovation, and the power of food to heal. From nourishing individuals facing life-threatening illnesses to fostering resilience in our community, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished together.
Big shout out to St. Kate's Softball for volunteering last week, packaging 2,234 meals for our clients! We'll be cheering for you this spring!!
We’re thrilled to announce that Open Arms client meal deliveries have officially gone digital with Onfleet! At Open Arms, we're always finding new ways to better serve our community. This exciting digital tool will streamline our delivery process, making it more efficient and easier for our staff, volunteers, and—most importantly—our clients.
Our Arms Will Remain Open. Follow the link below to read CEO Leah Hebert Welles’ statement on Open Arms of Minnesota's response to the federal funding pause and our commitment to serving critically ill Minnesotans through this uncertain time.
Open Arms Introduces "What Is A Medically Tailored Meal?" Series
February
Thank You, Lakewinds Community! We are so grateful to Lakewinds Food Co-op and everyone who supported Open Arms through the January Community Giving Round Up Program! Thanks to the generosity of shoppers at the Richfield, Chanhassen, and Minnetonka locations, more than $15,000 was donated in support of our mission.
Important Update from Open Arms of Minnesota. Our CEO, Leah Hebert Welles, shares an important program update about the current challenges we're facing and how we're moving forward with resilience and determination. Your support means everything to us during this time. Read the full message here.
Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Open Arms! 🧡💛Thank you to our community for nourishing our neighbors with love and compassion every day.
Last week we were deeply honored to receive the Commissioner’s Circle of Excellence Award from the Minnesota Department of Human Services at a special ceremony held at our St. Paul Kitchen and Campus on Wednesday, Feb. 12. This prestigious award recognizes organizations making a meaningful impact in the lives of Minnesotans, and we couldn’t be prouder to be among this year’s recipients.
March
Best of luck to our friend and Latin American Menu Consultant Soleil Ramirez tonight on Chopped!
Thank you to Rep. Ilhan Omar for stopping by Open Arms this morning as a part of Meals On Wheels Community Champions Week! Community Champions Week marks the anniversary of the establishment of the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Program on March 22, 1972, which laid the foundation for the expansion of the Meals on Wheels network that now collectively serves more than 2 million seniors each year. Rep. Omar helped out in both our kitchen and bakery, helping to prepare meals as part of our partnership with Metro Meals on Wheels.
Yesterday, Open Arms CEO, Leah Hebert Welles, joined Dawn Simonson of Trellis and Jeff Wyant of Semcac in testifying before the Minnesota Legislature on behalf of the Senior Meals and Services Coalition. The coalition is seeking funding to expand senior nutrition programs and essential support services that help older adults remain in their homes. The bill would provide $11 million for meals for our senior neighbors.
April
We Have a Winner! After an exhilarating Cookie Madness tournament, the results are in. In a nail-biting finish, Chocolate Chip Sea Salt edged out Molasses by just one vote to claim the title of Champion Cookie of 2025!
If we gave out a “Volunteer of the Week” award, it would definitely go to the amazing 1st and 2nd graders at Orono Public Schools Schumann Elementary School! These creative young students made more than 400 birthday cards that will be sent to our clients on their special day. A huge thank you to teacher Jenni and all the wonderful kiddos who took part in this heartwarming project. The smiles these cards will bring are truly priceless!
A recent Star Tribune article highlights the reality that funding for senior meals is falling short, leaving many older adults without the nourishment they need to live with health, dignity, and independence. Open Arms of Minnesota is a recipient of this funding and is approaching a critical point as financial support continues to decline.
Volunteer Appreciation Week is HERE! April 21–26. At Open Arms, we believe our volunteers are the heart of everything we do—and this week, we’re pulling out all the stops to celebrate YOU. From raffles, kitchen-made treats, and trivia, to daily dress-up themes and staff windshield washes for our drivers—it’s going to be a week full of fun, gratitude, and community.
May
Planting is ramping up at our five Open Farms locations! Onions are in the ground and Kelly and her team are busy broadforking the beds!
The show goes on, thanks to an outpouring of support from our community! Moveable Feast 2025 was one for the record books! Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, we raised more than $550,000 in support of our mission. That’s enough to provide over 55,000 medically tailored meals to our neighbors living with life-threatening illnesses. From the celebration at the Hollywood Theater to the unforgettable dining experiences across the Twin Cities, your support made it all possible. This wasn’t just a fundraiser — it was a night dedicated to camaraderie and a shared commitment to nourishing our community!
Celebrating 60 Years of the Older Americans Act! This Older Americans Month, we're proud to honor six decades of the Older Americans Act (OAA) — a vital law that helps older adults live with dignity, independence, and care. At Open Arms, we see the impact every day. Thanks to OAA support, we deliver nourishing, medically tailored meals to older adults living with critical illness — in fact, nearly two-thirds of our clients are 60+. But this crucial support is at risk.
It was great to have a group from MinnMax volunteer in our St. Paul kitchen last week! Check out the below video they put together for an awesome look at their volunteer experience at Open Arms.
A shoutout to our Cristo Rey Jesuit High School - Twin Cities intern, Ivan, who will graduate this spring and is currently deciding between the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas! Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, a Catholic coeducational school located in the Phillips neighborhood, partners with Open Arms through its innovative work-study program as part of a college and career preparatory curriculum. Thank you, Ivan, for your hard work and dedication. We wish you all the best in your next chapter!
June
We were thrilled to welcome volunteers from Boston Scientific to our Open Farms Afton location for an afternoon of service! The group rolled up their sleeves and took part in a variety of activities, including bed prepping, weeding, composting, soil amending, laying drip lines, planting, mulching, and aerating. Boston Scientific also generously donated $1,000 to Open Arms, which allowed us to purchase plants for a new pollinator garden. Even better—the volunteers had the chance to plant the pollinators themselves as part of their visit!
Relive the wonder of Moveable Feast 2025 through this year's official photo gallery, courtesy of our friend Amy Anderson!
🌈We’re still feeling the love from Twin Cities Pride!🌈 Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, shared a smile, asked questions, had a conversation, and showed your support for Open Arms and our mission! At Pride—and every day—we stand with our LGBTQIA+ community. To all the volunteers, staff, clients, and friends who make up this community, lets keep the spirit of Pride alive in every meal we deliver. Please check out the photo gallery from the festival below and share away!
July
There are just a couple days left in this year’s Cupcakes for a Cause Campaign, made possible by our tremendous friends at Lunds & Byerlys! As a reminder, Lunds & Byerlys is donating $1 from every gourmet cupcake sold (up to $10,000!) to Open Arms
We’re thankful for our incredible staff every day, but today we took a little extra time to show our appreciation! 💛🧡Their dedication and hard work makes it possible to prepare and deliver nourishing meals to our critically ill neighbors. Thank you for going above and beyond to make Open Arms a true community of kindness and support!
We’re officially a 2025 Minnesota’s Best Gold Winner — Place to Volunteer! 🥇 The results are in, and voters have selected Open Arms of Minnesota as a 2025 Minnesota’s Best Gold Winner in the category of Place to Volunteer! Minnesota’s Best is Minnesota’s premier readers’ choice award program and is open to all Minnesota businesses large and small. There is no cost to be nominated, voted for, or to win this contest. Thank you to the entire Open Arms community for supporting us and recognizing our volunteer program. We take a great deal of pride in our volunteers - the heart and soul of Open Arms! From preparing medically tailored meals to delivering our nourishing food to our critically ill clients, every aspect of our operations is made possible because of the incredible dedication of our volunteers. See all the winners at MinnesotasBest.com
GRATITUDE, HOPE, AND THE ROAD AHEAD In case you haven't read our CEO Leah Hébert Welles's recent letter to our community, you can check it out here. In the letter, Leah shares heartfelt thanks for your incredible support during funding challenges—and looks to the future with hope. We hope you give it a read and are so appreciative of your support. 💛
August
Thank you to our friends at Twin Cities Live for all your support in promoting this year's Great Minnesota Bake Sale!
🎉 It’s finally here — Bake Sale Week kicks off today! 🍪 From August 10–16, indulge in some of the Twin Cities’ best treats while supporting Open Arms’ mission to deliver nourishing, medically tailored meals to critically ill Minnesotans.
Thank you to our friends Ben Leber Page Elizabeth Ries at Twin Cities Live for helping us promote the Second Annual Great Minnesota Bake Sale! Make every bite count this week! Follow the link below to see all of our wonderful Bake Sale Partners!
Our on-site bake sale is ready for customers! Swing by the Open Arms Minneapolis Kitchen and Campus to purchase a treat in support of our clients! We'll be open until 2 p.m. today!
We had a blast talking about the Great Minnesota Bake Sale this morning on KSTP-TV Minnesota Live! Follow the link below to watch Kelli Hanson's interviews with Open Arms CEO Leah Hebert Welles and Yum! Kitchen and Bakery owner Patti Soskin.
Lets finish the week by checking in with Open Farms Manager Kelly Wilson and the Open Farms team. Our small but mighty farm team has enjoyed a summer filled with sunshine, rain, and warm temperatures—all contributing to some superb yields! So far this year, our farms have produced: 🧅Onions – 365 lbs 🥒Zucchini – 350 lbs 🥬Lettuce – 241 lbs 🍅Cherry Tomatoes – 214 lbs 🥔Potatoes – 156 lbs 🥬Cabbage – 138 lbs 🧄Garlic – 69 lbs 🌿Kale – 51 lbs 🌿Celery – 54.5 lbs 🌱Green Beans – 73 lbs All of these fresh ingredients have made their way into our clients’ meals as well as our Community Supported Agriculture program!
If you're headed to the State Fair for its final weekend, be sure to stop at the KSTP-TV Twin Cities Live Booth to purchase the 2026 KSTP Recipe Calendar presented by Nordic Ware Factory Store. Our generous friends are donating $1 of every calendar sold to Open Arms in support of our clients!
September
Food is Medicine featured in USA Today! A message from Open Arms of Minnesota CEO, Leah Hebert Welles. We are grateful to see the Food is Medicine Coalition and the impact of medically tailored meals highlighted in USA Today. As a proud founding member of FIMC, Open Arms of Minnesota knows food is more than nourishment—it’s health care, dignity, and hope. We urge policymakers, health systems, and communities to ensure everyone has access to food as medicine interventions, which includes meal plans developed and approved by Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) to meet the specific medical needs of our clients. I am deeply thankful to every staff member, volunteer, donor, and partner who makes our work possible.
Thank you to the more than 400 volunteers who joined us on Wednesday evening for TOAST! 2025, our annual volunteer celebration held at the St. Paul Kitchen and Campus! This year’s theme, “S’more Than a Feeling: A Toasty Taste-off,” lived up to its name as guests enjoyed an array of delectable appetizers crafted by Open Arms staff teams.
October
Open Arms of Minnesota strongly opposes the USDA’s decision to terminate the Household Food Security Report, a critical source of data on hunger in the United States. For decades, this report has provided important insight into the realities of food insecurity—information organizations like ours rely on to serve our clients and advocate for lasting solutions. At a time of rising food costs and shrinking support, this data has never been more important. Eliminating it obscures the lived experience of millions of households and undermines efforts to end hunger. We urge the USDA to reconsider this decision and recommit to providing transparent, reliable information that guides meaningful change.
Shout out to the crew from Surly Brewing Company Gives a Damn who joined us in Minneapolis to help finish packaging the remainder of our Blizzard Bags! During winter, severe weather may cause delays or cancellations to deliveries. To help our clients stay nourished, we provide a Blizzard Bag with shelf-stable, medically tailored items, meaning the items included follow our general nutrition guidelines.
CHEER ON TEAM OPEN ARMS AT TWIN CITIES MARATHON! Good luck to the ten athletes who will represent Open Arms at the 2025 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon and 10-Miler on Sunday, Oct. 5! Members of Team Open Arms register to take part in their respective running event and then use the race as a platform to raise funds for Open Arms. This year's team has generated more than $6k already! Thank you to this year's charity runners for all your hard work, and best of luck on the course!
Congrats to the members of Team Open Arms who competed in this weekend's Twin Cities Marathon events! The group has raised more than $6,500 in support of our clients through their participation in the charity running program!!
We’re honored to announce a new partnership with Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge in Rochester, Minnesota! Through Mayo Clinic’s Community Contributions Program, Open Arms will provide weekly medically tailored meals to Hope Lodge guests undergoing cancer treatment — offering nourishment, comfort, and care. This partnership extends our mission of delivering food as medicine statewide, ensuring that every Minnesotan facing serious illness has access to the meals they deserve.
We had the pleasure of welcoming members of the Minnesota Legislature this week! Thank you to Senator Melissa Wicklund (DFL, District 51), Senator Paul Utke (R, District 5), Senator Mark Koran (R, District 28), Bryce Hingst (GOP Committee Researcher), Hailey Ryan (Legislative Assistant for Senator Wicklund), and Stephen Rubis (Almeida PA) for visiting our St. Paul Kitchen and Campus for a tour and to learn more about how Open Arms is nourishing our community with medically tailored meals. We even got them in on the action as they helped pack meals for our clients!
Today, Open Arms of Minnesota was honored as a 2025 Nonprofit Mission Award recipient in the category of Innovation at the Minnesota Nonprofit Mission Awards ceremony held at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. Presented by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, the organization has been showcasing the work of Minnesota's outstanding nonprofit organizations since 1987.
Open Arms is proud to be a recipient of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Member Impact Fund Award through partnership with Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union. This award will allow us to prepare and deliver even more medically tailored meals to critically ill Minnesotans and their loved one. We're grateful for this generous support!
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Shrek-themed Open Arms van at Sunday's Twin Cities Pride Trunk-or-Treat event! We had a wonderful time connecting with so many friends, old and new, in our community!
November
This fall, many are asking how our clients are doing in the face of SNAP cuts and other resources being eliminated. We wanted to give you an update from our CEO, Leah Hebert Welles, and let you know about ways you can help support our community. Follow the link below to read the full update:
Thank you to KSTP-TV and Paul Folger for visiting Open Arms to learn more about how we are supporting our clients through Turkey Drive this YESvember! Follow the link below to check out the entire interview with our CEO Leah Hebert Welles.
Last Friday Open Arms was featured on KSTP-TV's Minnesota Live! Thanks to Hutch from KS95 - St. Paul / Minneapolis for coming out to the St. Paul Kitchen and Campus to cover our Thanksgiving efforts! You can check out the segment via the link below:
Year after year, our friends at Surly Brewing Company Gives a Damn show up to deliver Thanksgiving joy to our clients! With more than 40 volunteers and knocking out 20 delivery routes, this mighty group of delivered over 1,500 meals and 34 frozen Thanksgiving feasts this morning! From our entire community, THANK YOU!
Open Arms CEO Leah Hébert Welles recently sat down with Tom Weber of the The Minneapolis Foundation for its “State of Nonprofits” series. In this series, Tom connects with nonprofit leaders to explore how they’re navigating an era of rapid change. Watch the full conversation below to hear Leah discuss Open Arms’ role and impact within Minnesota’s nonprofit landscape.
You BUTTER believe we're excited about this contribution to our mission! Thank you to our friends at the Land O'Lakes, Inc. Foundation for its donation of more than 500 pounds of butter. Just in time for the busy holiday season, this key ingredient in our kitchens and bakery will help us offset the cost of our medically tailored meals and bakery items. We’re so grateful for your partnership!
Thanks to the help of 110 volunteer delivery drivers taking 115 routes (4-6 stops per route), we delivered more than 2,200 Thanksgiving meals to our clients this morning! To everyone who rolled up their sleeves, gave their time, donated, or helped spread the word this YESvember—thank you. Your kindness fuels this work and brings comfort, connection, and nourishment to our clients. Wishing you and your loved ones a Thanksgiving filled with warmth, joy, and gratitude.
December
Big shoutout to our Director of Programs, Anna Irmiter, for her thoughtful blog post with Advocates for Better Health! She breaks down how Open Arms is meeting rising needs with compassion, flexibility, and innovation. Check it out via the link below:
One of our favorite holiday traditions is welcoming the amazing Lunds & Byerlys team to Open Arms! As is now tradition, folks donning the iconic green beanies arrived bright and early for a full day of volunteering in our kitchens and bakery, and delivering meals directly to our clients
Don’t mind us as we crank up the holiday cuteness this Friday! A huge shoutout to Ms. Ehalt’s class at North Branch Middle School North Branch Area Public Schools for going above and beyond for those we serve! As part of a class project, these incredible students crafted 30 handmade blankets from fabric they personally selected — all while learning about Open Arms and our food as medicine mission. Their creativity, generosity, and care will bring warmth and comfort to the children of our clients this season. Thank you, students, for sharing your talents and hearts
Good vibes Friday, here we go! Big shoutout and lots of gratitude to our friends at Cargill for decorating these holiday cards to share joy with our clients this season, and for all the ways you support Open Arms! Thank you and happy holidays!!
We love seeing so many families—and especially students—volunteering in our kitchens over the holidays! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to support our clients and their families.
Big shoutout to all the wonderful groups who have supported us by volunteering their time during the holidays! We have another busy week ahead of us leading into 2026, so if you have time to spare we’d love to see you!
