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IPR staffers hard at work volunteering at the Open Arms of Minnesota Kitchen
Last week, for the second year running, IPR staff and faculty choose to spend a day giving back to our community by volunteering at Open Arms of Minnesota. IPR has a yearlong commitment to community service. Instructors regularly lead classes in service projects that bring community members into the studios and classrooms and bring students out into the greater community. But once each year, staff and faculty join together to be of service on one project. For two years now, that project has been a day of service at Open Arms.
Open Arms of Minnesota is a nonprofit organization that delivers free meals that are tailored to the needs of people who suffer from cancer, HIV/Aids, multiple sclerosis, and ALS. Open Arms’ community of over 5,000 volunteers work with staff chefs and nutritional specialists to cook and deliver to clients in 106 Twin Cities zip codes – that’s over 1,000 clients, dependents and caregivers.
IPR has a special connection with Open Arms. Administrative Assistant Trish Williams lives with multiple sclerosis and she’s been a client of Open Arms of Minnesota since 2009. “It’s because of Open Arms that I can work a full-time job and live a very happy and productive life,” She told us last year when the project was announced.
And this year, Trish was able to participate in the day of volunteering. The group spent time in the Open Arms kitchen, packaging meals and peeling and chopping cases and cases of sweet potatoes. Trish was happy to join the volunteers that make her weekly deliveries possible.
“I think I have one of these chicken dinners in my freezer right now,” she said as she slapped a label on a roasted chicken breast and vegetable dinner.
Go to openarmsmn.org to learn more about volunteering, receiving meals, or making a donation to Open Arms.