Open Your Heart is excited to announce our Summer grantees! Thanks to our generous supporters, Open Your Heart awarded nearly $135,000 in funding this quarter to Minnesota crisis service agencies in need! None of this would be possible without you. Thank you!
Advocates Against Domestic Abuse dba HOPE
$9,743 | Aitkin
To replace the broken boiler heating system for the safe housing apartments. These emergency housing spaces provide safety and shelter to domestic violence victim/survivors, their children and pets in greater MN.
Central Lakes College Food Pantry
$7,000 | Brainerd
To provide students who are housing insecure with emergency motel stays until they can find safe and affordable housing options. Funding will help get students out of their cars on cold winter nights, out of dangerous and abusive living situations, and off of the streets.
Channel One Food Shelf
$2,254 | Rochester
Funding for two mobile beverage coolers in support of Channel One’s Mobile Market, which will improve access for people living in the most food insecure neighborhood in Rochester. The Channel One Mobile Market will remove transportation and accessibility barriers that often keep low-income people from accessing nutritious, culturally appropriate food.
Churches United for the Homeless
$6,500 | Moorhead
To purchase new beds and bed frames in additional family spaces, addressing the uptick in the number of families need shelter. The beds from this grant will furnish these new rooms with the equipment necessary to set guests on a path toward healing.
Emergency Community Help Organization (ECHO)
$6,245 | Mankato
To upgrade ECHO’s electrical circuit, meeting the demand of refrigeration units and avoiding a loss of operation time and product. Upgrading the electrical circuit will correct current electrical issues, allowing ECHO to operate without issues and reducing the possibility of food loss.
Grace House of Itasca County
$3,000 | Grand Rapids
To support youth in area schools experiencing homelessness or in transitional housing by creating pathways for improved access and academic success. The funds will support a student’s ability to participate in extra-curricular activities and school-related events, such as a fee for field trips, proper clothing for an event or sports activity, and most importantly, learning supplies, books or anything a homeless student needs to be successful.
Intermediate District 287
$5,000 | Plymouth
To remove barriers for homeless and highly mobile identified students, ages 5 to 21 years of age, so that they will have the resources to continue to attend school with dignity. Funding toward basic necessities for students experiencing homelessness—clothing, footwear, toiletries, and bedding—and to provide transportation (cabbing) to and from school until their McKinney-Vento transportation starts.
Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC)
$30,000 | Minneapolis
Toward up to (15) $2,000 scholarships for the 2022-2023 school year to MCTC students who are currently experiencing homelessness or have experienced homelessness in the past two years. In addition to filling high-demand jobs, scholarship recipients are offered a real and permanent escape from a homeless life.
Minneapolis Temple Corps Salvation Army
$3,730 | Roseville
Funding to purchase a two-door sliding glass cooler to store perishable food. Having a large cooler will allow Temple Corps to increase their capacity to provide health perishable food to their community surrounding Lake Street in South Minneapolis.
Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV)
$3,000 | St. Paul
To provide comprehensive services to Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Minnesota. Through MACV, clients can engage with services designed to stabilize their housing and contribute to the end of Veteran homelessness in Minnesota.
Monticello Help Center
$5,000 | Monticello
Funding toward replacing an old three door refrigerator and upgrading an energy efficient glass door refrigerator that when shopping the clients can see product before opening.
New Creation Baptist Church (NCBC Food Shelf)
$2,555 | Minneapolis
To purchase a software that allows NCBC the capabilities to intake clients, record stats, enter new shoppers and intake TEFAP clients. With the new Pantry Saver software, NCBC can return to choice shopping and serve more clients in a more efficient way.
NorthStar Health
$7,500 | St. Paul
To support the purchase of one commercial refrigerator to aid in food distribution, growing the capacity to store and distribute more fresh food items to communities of color who are low income and/or are experiencing homelessness.
Parkview Corps Salvation Army
$1,485 | Roseville
To purchase three new utility carts for use in both the food shelf and the Loaves and Fishes meal program and replace the broken heavy-duty shelving with two new shelves in the storage pantry. The funding will help staff and volunteers be more efficient and safer.
Sojourner Project
$3,654 | Hopkins
To help refurbish and refresh several resident rooms to help maintain emergency shelter’s welcoming and comfortable atmosphere. After over a decade of use by hundreds of shelter residents, these items are no longer functional or comfortable, and need to be replaced.
South Central MN Food Recovery (SCMNFR)
$6,575 | Mankato
Toward the creation of a volunteer prep space that will allow for the continued access to healthful, remade meals made from high quality food that would otherwise be going to the landfill. Creating a volunteer space will allow SCMNFR to continue making and distributing ready-made meals for those working directly with people in need.
Southern Anoka Community Assistance (SACA)
$6,340 | Columbia Heights
To replace a broken two door cooler that is used for dairy products in the shopping area of food shelf. Replacing this cooler enables SACA to serve their clients more effectively and efficiently.
The Bridge for Youth
$5,000 | Minneapolis
To meet the needs of youth currently or at risk of experiencing homelessness through The Mobile Youth Outreach Center. Funding will support the purchase of outreach supplies (gender affirming and transitional clothing, personal care items), engaging approximately 1,500 youth in early intervention services to prevent youth homelessness.
The Sanneh Foundation
$4,000 | St. Paul
To repair the refrigerated truck in order to continue providing essential services to those in need. Support will have a direct, positive impact on those who are struggling with food insecurity as a result of their economic status, as well as individuals and families near or experiencing homelessness in the community.
Two Harbors Area Food Shelf
$2,649 | Two Harbors
To purchase a glass door freezer to allow for easy ‘client choice’. This piece of equipment will allow Two Harbors to fully embrace the ‘client choice’ model of distribution and will improve their overall ability to meet the needs of the community by allowing them to best offer frozen items that are often the most desired by shoppers.
Vineyard Community Services
$5,000 | St. Paul
Funding toward the installation of a double door entry to the food shelf that will allow pallet operations to flow through, supporting Vineyard’s need for increased food orders and food rescue operations.
Wildflyer Coffee
$3,599 | Minneapolis
Funding to purchase a commercial-grade air curtain Merchandiser for the current Minneapolis coffee shop. Wildflyer Coffee creates employment opportunities and cultivates life skills to empower youth experiencing homelessness and housing instability. The Merchandiser brings the impact of having a reliable refrigerator to store milk, produce, and other perishable items essential to continue providing consistent, healthy food to customers and youth participants.
Women’s Advocates
$3,320 | St. Paul
To convert an existing office space to a GED testing facility for homeless victim/survivors of domestic violence living in shelter and newly housed victim/survivors in Housing Stability program. Funding will provide a pathway to independence and fulfill employment for shelter residents and others in Women’s Advocates programming.