40th Anniversary
Open Arms Celebrates 40 Years Of Nourishing Our Neighbors
Open Arms of Minnesota marks its 40th anniversary at a moment that holds both reflection and resolve. The milestone comes during a time of deep pain and even greater pride for the Minneapolis community. In the face of these challenges, Open Arms remains steadfast in its mission—to show up for critically ill neighbors with dignity, nourishment, and care. For four decades, resilience, compassion, and commitment have defined the organization, and those values continue to guide its work today.
The story of Open Arms began in 1986 with a simple yet profound act of kindness. Founder Bill Rowe started cooking meals in his apartment and delivering them to individuals living with AIDS, at a time when both the illness and the community it affected were met with widespread stigma. What began as one person’s response to need grew into a powerful model of care rooted in empathy, hope, and the belief that food is medicine—principles that remain central to our mission.
Throughout 2026, this legacy will be honored while looking ahead to the future. Signature events will bring the community together in remembrance and celebration. Complementing these moments, Open Arms launched a “40 Years, 40 North Stars” initiative, a yearlong storytelling and recognition campaign highlighting the individuals, organizations, and partners who have helped shape the mission over four decades. These stories will celebrate a shared history while illuminating the values that continue to lead the way forward.
At its core, this anniversary is a tribute to the Open Arms community: the clients and caregivers who trust the organization during their most vulnerable moments; the volunteers who prepare, pack, and deliver meals through every season; the staff who bring skill, creativity, and humanity to their work each day; and the donors and partners who believe that people facing critical illness deserve both nourishment and dignity.
As Open Arms moves forward, it does so with gratitude for all that has come before and hope for what lies ahead. What began around a small table has grown into a community united by care, and that table continues to expand. Always, ALWAYS with room for one more.
Events
Throughout 2026, we’ll be marking this anniversary with moments that honor our history while looking boldly toward the future. Please mark your calendars for these special events:
- Decade Celebration – March 5 – PHOTOS
- 22nd Annual Moveable Feast Gala – Thursday, May 7 – PHOTOS
- 40th Birthday Party – Saturday, September 19 – EVENT DETAILS
- A Table Built on Love: A World AIDS Day Celebration – Thursday, December 3
Interested in sponsorship opportunities for our 40th Birthday Party? Find more information via the link below or reach out to Emily Essert at [email protected].
40 North Stars
Coinciding with our special events, Open Arms launched a yearlong storytelling and recognition campaign honoring the people and partners who have helped guide our mission for four decades. Titled “40 Years, 40 North Stars,” the campaign will honor 40 individuals, organizations, and entities who have helped light the way for Open Arms since 1986. Together, these stories will celebrate our shared history while illuminating the values that continue to guide us into the future.
Open Arms will be announcing its 40 North Stars throughout 2026, so stay tuned for even more impact-makers in our storied history!
Dennis Louie
Dennis has been a volunteer since 1992, and is one of the organization’s 3 longest active volunteers. Starting out cooking his own recipes for clients in the basement kitchen at First Congregational Church almost 40 years ago, he has volunteered regularly for almost four decades and more than 5000 hours at special events, in the kitchen, and doing special projects for almost every area of the organization.
Marjie Smith
Marjie has been volunteering regularly since 2002 and is one of Open Arms’ 10 volunteers with the most lifetime hours - more than 5,800 hours. Marjie has helped at events, with special projects and is a familiar sight at the reception desk where she has volunteered for decades, serving our clients with dedication.
Sabine and Dudley Barksdale
Sabine received a referral to Open Arms in 2006 by her doctor's office, and although she didn’t become a client, she became a volunteer. She has been active in the kitchen, done laundry, worked in the bakery, done special projects, helped at special events and greeted visitors at the reception desk for 15 years. Sabine and Dudley delivered to clients during COVID and are long time and generous funders.
Heather Goetz
Heather has been volunteering since 2015 and is the #1 volunteer at Open Arms with THE MOST total hours volunteered ever - more than 8300! Heather continues to volunteer several times per week - in BOTH St. Paul and Minneapolis - in the kitchens, operations and in delivery.
Lisa Genis
Lisa has been volunteering since 1998, and is one of the five active volunteers with the most lifetime hours - more than 6000! She is also one of the longest and most consistent donors - she has baked, biked, fundraised, cooked, chopped, packed and delivered as a volunteer for Open Arms. With her husband Steve who started volunteering in 2001, she has been a familiar face for decades in the bakery.
Dottie Johnson
Not only has Dottie’s picture made it into about half of the publications at Open Arms, she has been volunteering since 1995. She delivered to clients every week until 2022, and she made it a family affair, bringing her children and her grandchildren on routes for years. She continues to come in and volunteer on special projects, and is also one of our longest and most consistent donors.
Golden Girls, Cathy Borer
The Golden Girls were a fixture every Friday in our kitchens from the 1990’s to the late 2010’s. Cathy started volunteering in 2000 and met the other “girls”, and remained close with Carol, Pat N, Phyllis and Pat M throughout the rest of their lives. Open Arms brought them together, nourished their friendships and became a part of their lives.
Golden Girls, Ann Fankhanel
Ann became an honorary Golden Girl as she volunteered on Fridays for years in the kitchen and became close with the rest of the “girls.” Fridays meant a fun kitchen shift, maybe a client delivery route and sometimes lunch and a glass of wine. Ann stayed close with the “girls” through the ends of their lives, she is also a longtime and generous donor.
Tracy and Karen Appelbaum
Although they both started volunteering in 1995, Tracy was first. They met at Open Arms, became friends, fell in love and married. The first place their daughter went after she was born was Open Arms. From the church basement to present day, together they have volunteered for more than 4,000 hours and they continue to deliver to clients more than 31 years later.
Phil Willkie
Known as our founder Bill’s best friend, Phil has been volunteering at Open Arms since day one in 1986. He has delivered to clients for almost 4 decades - first driven by the friends he saw dying of AIDS. Phil is one of the longest and most vocal supporters of Open Arms, and has raised money for our clients through bike rides, and every kind of party and special event.
David Bjork
David Bjork began as a Board member in 1996 and celebrated more than 11 years on the Board of Directors. David held the position of Board Chair during some of the most pivotal years of Open Arms. He was instrumental in hiring long-time Executive Director, Kevin Winge, and helped bring an era of growth and expansion to Open Arms. David is one of our longest and largest lifetime donors and supporters.
Kent Linder
Kent Linder worked at Open Arms for almost 16 years, serving as the Client Services Director, the Program Director and the Operations Director between 1997 and 2013. Kent had a hand in creating the foundation for most of the current work we do – moving the client services program from a daily delivery to a weekly delivery, expanding client services from serving only HIV/AIDS clients to adding clients with breast cancer and other illnesses, and starting the Open Farms Program.
Jennifer Van Wyk
If you have ever attended Moveable Feast, you owe the experience to Jennifer Van Wyk, as she was the brains behind the very first Moveable Feast in 2005. In the 22 years we have been holding the event, it has raised over $6M to fund client meals! Jennifer started as a Board member in 2001 and later became a staff member in 2004. Jennifer is a fundraising, relationship building powerhouse, and through her persistence and hard work with Kevin Winge, raised over $8 million to fund the construction of the Minneapolis Kitchen and Campus.
Kevin Winge
Kevin Winge became the Executive Director in 1997 and led Open Arms from a small organization making meals for 100 clients in the basement of a church, through incredible expansion and growth, establishing Open Arms as a vital resource for people living with life threatening illnesses in the Twin Cities. It was his commitment to building community and bringing people together that created the amazing transformational volunteer culture we have today. In 2011, when Kevin left Open Arms, he had grown the organization more than 900% and impacted countless lives. His legacy lives on in what we do here every day.
M•A•C Cosmetics and The Estée Lauder Companies
For more than 20 years, M•A•C Cosmetics and The Estée Lauder Companies were incredible partners to Open Arms, providing more than $750,000 in financial support. Most of it through the M•A•C AIDS Fund. In the 90s and 2000s, M•A•C was well known for their strong commitment to HIV/AIDS services, most famously through their Viva Glam lipstick campaign, where 100% of the selling price supported organizations like ours. That funding helped us provide nourishing, medically tailored meals to thousands of clients living with HIV/AIDS.
Hugh J. Andersen Foundation
The Hugh J. Andersen Foundation has been one of Open Arms' most valued foundation partners for nearly three decades. In addition to providing consistent general operating support, the foundation made significant investments in the capital campaigns that built both our Minneapolis and St. Paul facilities and, more recently, provided critical funding to help meet essential equipment needs. Long before Open Arms established our St. Paul campus, the Hugh J. Andersen Foundation recognized the importance of ensuring that critically ill residents of the east metro had access to medically tailored meals and nutrition support. Since 1997, the foundation has invested more than $800,000 in Open Arms, helping us expand our reach, strengthen our infrastructure, and ensure that thousands of neighbors receive nourishing meals with dignity and compassion.
HRK Foundation
Since our partnership began 26 years ago, the HRK Foundation contributed more than $700,000 in grant funding to support Open Arms’ programs. As one of our longest and largest foundation partners, their impact was felt in the steadfast funding of meals to clients, as well as significant investments in our buildings and growth. Although the Foundation has sunsetted, Julia Kaemmer continues her family’s legacy of giving in unique and generous ways – a perfect example is Julia’s generous donation of her farmland in Afton, where our Open Farms program grows thousands of pounds of produce year after year for client meals. The nourishing and direct impact of HRK and the Kaemmer family in the lives of Open Arms’ clients will be felt for years to come.
Takeda
Takeda is a global, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader guided by a generational promise to boldly reinvent for a healthier world. Understanding that the future of health depends on knowing the patients and communities they serve, Takeda partners with trusted, community-based organizations that understand local needs and are positioned to drive meaningful, long-term impact. The company invests in locally informed solutions that expand access to health care, and to nutritious and medically tailored food -- helping create healthier, more equitable communities for generations to come. In 2023, Open Arms was fortunate to become one of those partners, and the relationship has flourished ever since. Takeda provided essential support for our groundbreaking, award-winning Cultural Meals Program, helping bring this innovative offering to life. In less than five years of partnership, Takeda has contributed more than $1 million to Open Arms, making it the largest corporate donor in our organization's history.
Bazinet
Just four years after moving into its first standalone facility at 1414 Franklin Ave, and three years after hiring its first paid staff, Open Arms charged into the new millennium hungry to expand and deepen its impact across the Twin Cities. Serving more than 350 clients with the support of 400 volunteers, the organization was ready to grow and needed new partners to help make that possible. Enter Ed Bazinet and his sisters. Established in 1993 with wealth created from Department 56 (a giftware company known for its village house and other collectibles that grew into a multimillion-dollar company) the Edward R. Bazinet Charitable Foundation has a long-standing track record of investing in organizations working to build a better future for Minnesotans. According to his sister, Maureen Bazinet Beck, the family was looking for a way to support people impacted by HIV/AIDS, because "Ed had lost many close friends to the disease and wanted to play a role in helping those suffering. But as the disease became more manageable and Open Arms began serving others, Ed loved their expanded mission. All of us on the board have been impressed too, which is why our giving has continued and increased." Since 2001, the Foundation has contributed over $1,000,000 to Open Arms through its grants program, helping the organization expand its services and lay the groundwork for the Open Arms we know today.
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation’s mission is to support initiatives in education, health/medicine and human services while advancing innovative solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities. As a pioneer of the Food Is Medicine movement and the sole provider of medically tailored meals in the Upper Midwest, Open Arms was fortunate to find in the Schulze Family Foundation a partner with a shared passion for innovation and a commitment to improving the lives of others. The Open Arms kitchen is where the organization’s mission comes to life and a little magic happens every day. That’s why when you step into the kitchen at the St. Paul Kitchen and Campus, you’re greeted by the Schulze name, a testament to the Foundation’s commitment. A supporter of Open Arms since 2014, the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation is the organization’s largest single foundation funder, contributing more than $1.6 million to date. Its partnership has helped Open Arms innovate, grow, and continue delivering nourishment to our critically ill neighbors.
Securian Financial
In a historic moment for Open Arms, we expanded across the river to St. Paul with the opening of our second facility on January 3, 2023. Securian Financial, with its commitment to empowering families and investing in programs that build vibrant communities, played an essential role in bringing the St. Paul facility to life as the largest corporate funder of the capital campaign. Today, the Securian name is part of the building’s community space—a lasting reminder of the company’s investment in the Open Arms mission. Securian’s impact, however, extends far beyond the building itself. As one of our most significant corporate volunteer partners, Securian employees generously provide hundreds of hours of service each year, while the company’s ongoing financial support continues to help provide medically tailored meals and care to our clients year after year.
