Lakeville Rotary Club welcomed guest speaker Jason Viana,
Executive Director of Open Door Pantry!
He has led the hunger relief organization since 2016 following almost 20 years of work in the nonprofit sector, most recently with the American Red Cross here in Minnesota. Jason hails from the deep south and now lives in Burnsville with his wife and two young boys.
Jason shared a little bit about the history of The Open Door and spoke about how they are currently helping with food insecurities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Started in Eagan with two basic focus’s, Health and Dignity. Over 70% of their shelves are filled with healthy food.
In a normal time, they would feed about 7,000 people per month and now during Coronavirus they have noticed a significant increase in the need for healthy food and they expect this trend to continue for through next year.
Outside of the Food pantry they now have over 11 community gardens and have over 250 plots available to their clients for fresh food. He shared that their Mobile Pantry has expanded to 28 sites in 2019 and is growing.
Their Outreach includes: Mobile Pantry sites, Garden to Table sites, Mobile Lunch Box sites, Pop-up Produce Stand Sites.
Open Door Volunteer Info: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?ap=2076652956
Click the following link to hear Jason's program on Open Door Pantry.
Youtube video Link: https://youtu.be/uQ0GDKUvous