Farmington Feed: The Open Door Pantry
This is the Farmington Feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington.
Caryn:Hi, and welcome back to the Farmington Feed. I'm Caryn Hojnicki, , the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for another episode of the Feed. The price of food is high, and there's a need in this community and surrounding areas for food support. Just over a year ago, the city of Farmington partnered with the Open Door Food Pantry to offer free, fresh, and healthy food to the Farmington community. Let's sit down and chat with Nicole Tyrrell, neighborhood programs manager at The Open Door, and Lynn Gorski, city administrator, to find out how this partnership works.
Caryn:Nicole and Lynn, hello, and welcome to The Farmington Feed. This is the first time for both of you, and we are glad you're here today. So, Nicole, let's start with you. What is The Open Door, and what is your role there?
Nicole:Yeah. Thank you. So the Open Door is a food pantry in Dakota County. I am the neighborhood programs manager, and that basically means that every time food goes off-site, I am the one planning and kind of following through with that.
Caryn:How long has the open door been providing free, fresh, and healthy food to the metro area?
Nicole:So open door has been around in some iteration for about 20 years. Wow. 15 years, actually, as the open door. We started in Mount Calvary's, basement Mhmm. In Eagan.
Nicole:Lots of different iterations, but we've been around for about 15 years and it how it currently looks.
Caryn:Yeah. And so how is the few food secured and or and or how is it delivered to these pop ups?
Nicole:Yeah. So we've got 3 different ways typically that we get food. One of them being individual donation. So if you're cleaning out your cupboard or you're having a food drive at your school or work, that's one way. And then the second way is food rescue.
Nicole:So food rescue is kind of literally rescuing food from grocery stores.
Caryn:Oh, yeah. Because of all the stuff that they're gonna throw out. Right?
Nicole:Yep. So if they get new stock or if they get anything in there, if they get too much of something that doesn't sell
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:We essentially are going in and picking up that produce, picking up that dairy, you know, canned items, all that kind of stuff, and then having our volunteers sort through that food
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:Because it is still good Right. But not good enough for them to sell it. Right. So we're taking that food that's still good, saving it from the garbage, and then reusing it. And we still do compost a lot of it, but we wanna make sure that the food we're getting in is food that our clients would be happy to get from the grocery store versus, like
Caryn:Not the bad stuff.
Nicole:Yeah. You're not gonna be picking through everything. So we do compost what we don't use. And then the third way is Second Harvest. So Second Harvest
Caryn:Oh, what's that?
Nicole:The big food bank for the Midwest, mostly Minnesota, a little Dakota, and a little Wisconsin. But they are basically the food bank. So they work with the general mills or, you know, like, like, the big organizations, big farms, those kind of things Mhmm. Where they are able to secure a lot more food
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:A lot more bulk product.
Caryn:Right.
Nicole:Right. So a lot of those kind of, like, basic needs stuff is what we get from Second Harvest.
Caryn:So I know it's not typical, I guess, but what is a typical box or bag have for people that come to the pantry?
Nicole:If you're in our actual brick and mortar pantry in Eagan, that is you are getting a full haul from, like, say, you would get from a grocery store.
Caryn:Okay.
Nicole:So if you've got a family of 5, you're leaving with, like, a 150 pounds of food. Mhmm. Everything from frozen meat, fresh dairy. Okay. We do have canned items and all that kind of stuff, but it's set up very much like a grocery store.
Nicole:We focus on go shopping? Yeah. Just go shopping. We've got carts. It's kind of a, you know, free flowing area, so you don't have to, like, go to the produce right first and then go get your milk.
Nicole:So you can kinda shop like you would in a grocery store. We try to keep it as easy and dignified as possible Mhmm. So you don't even feel like you're shopping in a food pantry.
Caryn:Okay. Now for the pop ups, obviously, you are limited. You don't have, like, refrigerator space and freezer space. So what do you do for that?
Nicole:Yeah. So our pop ups are, kind of an easy way for us to be able to get a lot of food to a lot of people in a short amount of time. So that food comes from Second Harvest, and so it's a lot of your basic items. So we've got rice, beans, pasta, you know, those kind of, like, random canned items that a lot of families could have, but really trying to focus on that fresh produce. Right.
Nicole:So summer, obviously, with harvest season, we have a lot of variety. But we always make sure that even in, like, the winter, we've got potatoes, onions, carrots, apples, you know, all of those kind of produce items that most people want. Yeah. And then we usually have frozen meat and milk Right. For those.
Caryn:Okay. Lynn, how about you? How did this partnership start, and how did it all begin?
Lynn:Well, thanks for asking, Caryn. How it started was a networking morning networking group that, the mayor and I attended. And we met with Tony Vanicola and Tony was discussing open door with us and what opportunities it could provide to our Farmington residents. So what we did from there is we set up a tour at the Eagan facility that Nicole talked about. And we toured with Jason, gave us his tour and that's exactly right.
Lynn:And how you mentioned it. You walk in, there's a cart. It's very dignified. They can shop on their own, bag their groceries, and leave. We had a great tour, had great conversations with Jason on how can we bring this to Farmington.
Lynn:And so from there, came down and talked about, you know, looking at our space at Rambling River Center. And I was not aware that open door pantry had already been at the Rambling River Center pre COVID for a couple times when then COVID kinda shut it down. So we were bringing back something that was already started a few years ago. But some of the obstacles we talked about was, you know, making sure that we had a nice flowing space and easier on Open Door to provide the services, which previously, they were in the dining room area, and they had to care manually carry everything in. So we decided that a better space, we could bring the pantry into the garage area.
Caryn:And And that's what I saw when I went last last time. It was really nice. Yeah. And Really easy to set up too.
Nicole:I was gonna say easy setup, easy flow, and people then are able to, like, quickly access their vehicles. Yeah. So they're not carrying stuff too far.
Caryn:For sure.
Lynn:Right. And we're just so thankful for the opportunity. And I I this is a prime example of how it's important for Farmington Council and staff to show up and network, and this opportunity came through networking.
Caryn:And Because you were there that day and just happened to hear about it.
Lynn:Yes. And building the relationships, which is important, and it benefits the residents. And I'm so proud of our relationship we have with the Open Door, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity that you bring and provide food. Think about that to our residents. Seems so basic for some people and not for others.
Lynn:And so I personally wanna thank Open Door for our relationship, and I am looking forward to it continuing as we look at our new space at Rambling River Center and the remodel, and we wanted to make sure when we were going through those drawings, we invited you in and said Yep. Does this work for you?
Nicole:Yeah. Which was a great invite because that really makes us feel, you know, like we are part of the community and I have to say that our partnership so far over the course of the last year has been just amazing. Everyone from the city from the mayor to city employees, to teachers and staff. You know? I mean, everyone is very involved, and that's a very unique kind of situation for folks outside of Farmington that doesn't feel like the normal.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:Like so we we as the Open Door appreciate you guys being able to make this as seamless as possible and bring this to the residents of Farmington.
Lynn:Oh, thank you. It's mutual.
Caryn:Yeah. So let's talk about how this happens. If someone needs food or when and where and and everything. I know that's changing. So currently, we were at the Rambling River Center.
Caryn:Now we're going to
Nicole:Faith United Methodist Church.
Caryn:Is that it's not too far down the street, is it?
Nicole:No. I wanna say it's like a minute and a half driving.
Nicole:Okay. Like, if you get stuck at every stop sign. You know? So, yeah, it's not far at all. So, yeah. So, we've been in Rambling River Center for about a year, a little over a year and so we're going to be switching over and we're going to be temporarily in Faith United Methodist Church, their little community room from November until April or whenever construction ends at Rambling River Center.
Caryn:Right. For sure.
Nicole:But, yeah, having an indoor space, that was really, really helpful during winter. I mean, being in the garage was great because we could just kind of, you know, get all our stuff in there. It was somewhat protected from, like, wind and snow and all that kind of stuff. So being able to have another space that is inside where people can wait inside, it actually might be a little bit better for a lot of the residents and people that come because you'll be able to wait inside their, like, dining area. So that's like a big plus for being in the winter.
Nicole:But yeah. So setup is gonna be very similar to how it's been at Rambling River. And for those of you that maybe have never been there, we essentially set up kind of like a pop up produce pantry ish thing. Think farmers market Mhmm. Where we put everything out on tables.
Nicole:So you just kind of go through and you take what you want. We know not every single person is like, I love cabbage. So we're not gonna force you to take anything you don't want.
Caryn:I'd say that about brussel sprouts.
Nicole:Right?
Nicole:You know, but some people
Lynn:I'll have yours.
Nicole:I was gonna say, there's always, you know, kind of a hit and miss kind of thing. You know, there might be 1 or 2 items you don't want or use, but feel free to take everything else. So, yeah. So, it's gonna be set up in their little community room.
Nicole:We're gonna have everything on tables. We'll still have our big refrigerated truck outside that will have fresh meat and milk out on the truck. So, yeah, it's, I mean, the fact that you guys just kind of like even found us a backup location was even better, you know? I mean Yeah. It's great.
Nicole:So, yeah.
Caryn:And it's not too far.
Nicole:No. Not too far at all.
Lynn:And a big thank you to Faith Methodist Church Yes. For welcoming Open Door.
Nicole:Oh, yeah. I mean
Caryn:Now where will they be they be going in to get to that space? Do you know that?
Nicole:So both Seventh Street and Eighth Street doors will be open. Okay. We will be closer to the seventh Street entrance, but because parking is obviously like a little bit different, there's gonna be street parking. There's gonna be, you know, parking lot parking. So feel free to kind of come in from either side.
Nicole:Just know that if you're on the Eighth Street side, you might have to walk a little bit more to your car.
Caryn:Okay.
Nicole:But, yeah, our truck will be on 7th the 7th Street parking lot kind of area. Okay. But we'll be right inside that door.
Caryn:Alright. Perfect. Yeah. And remind listeners when you guys show up each month because I don't think we talked about that.
Nicole:Yes. So, we are going to be the 3rd Tuesday of every month, so that's gonna be staying the same. Mhmm. And we will be there 3 to 4:30.
Caryn:3 to 4:30. Perfect. Do they need to bring anything? So if somebody needs food, what do they do?
Nicole:Yeah. So if someone needs food and wants to come to our, pop up here in pantry or in Farmington, they can essentially just show up. Okay. So, we
Caryn:No bags? Nothing?
Nicole:Well, you can come with bags. Okay. That is appreciated. Mhmm. If you have a wagon or, like, a little grocery cart, that's super helpful as well.
Nicole:Mhmm. But if you wanna just, like, pop over and come over, bring nothing. We have some bags. We've got all that kind of stuff. Just bags are kind of, you know, hit and miss.
Nicole:We don't we don't always have those.
Caryn:Right.
Nicole:Or a lot of them.
Caryn:Yep.
Nicole:And a lot of the stuff that we're handing out, we're handing out a lot of food.
Nicole:So I would say anywhere from 30 to 40 pounds that you're taking home, sometimes even more. So, having a wagon or a cart sometimes is a little bit easier. Yeah. To be able to bring everything to your car.
Caryn:I know. The first time I went shopping, this is so embarrassing, but in Portland, I we live next to a grocery store, so I just walked over there. And I over shopped not thinking about how much stuff I had to carry home, and it was way too much. Yep. I couldn't carry it back uphill.
Caryn:So, yeah, you gotta think about how much poundage you're bringing with you.
Nicole:Yep. So it I mean, it'll be, you know, right around that 40 pound thing and depending on who you are Mhmm. 40 pounds is nothing or it's a lot. Yep. So,
Caryn:so plan accordingly.
Nicole:So yeah. But otherwise, we have such great volunteers that if you ever can't carry something but you need it
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:Just let us know that you need some help, and we are happy to, like, have our volunteers Get it. Jump out a line and, like, help you to your car kind of thing.
Lynn:Nicole, you mentioned bringing bags is appreciated, and, also, I would like to ask the community if they have extra paper bags that they'd be willing to donate.
Caryn:Oh, yeah.
Lynn:How could someone donate?
Nicole:You know, at the Open Door, we serve about, we'll say, 15 to 18,000 individuals a month.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:So we go through a lot of paper bags and even plastic bags. So if you ever have an abundance of paper bags and you wanna just bring them over to Faith United or City Hall, you are welcome to do that. They're gonna be and then they'll be able to bring that over to our distribution.
Caryn:Oh, perfect. Yeah. So they can drop them off at city hall too. Yeah. Perfect. You kinda just touched on it, volunteers. I mean, this can't be run without volunteers.
Caryn:So how many do you usually use for your pop ups, and how many, like, overall, like, volunteer hours are you guys needing from the community?
Nicole:Yeah. We often say that the Open Door does not run without volunteers. We are a less than 20 person staff.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:And like I said, feeding anywhere from 15 to 18,000 individuals a month, that is a lot. That's amazing. So at a typical pop up, so say at Faith United or when we were at Rambling River, that's anywhere from 8 to 10 volunteers with 2 staff. Any given day is a little bit different. So we usually have at least one off-site distribution going on.
Nicole:We also have our brick and mortar pantry. We also have our food sorting and food rescue and all of those other kind of jobs.
Caryn:Behind the scenes stuff.
Nicole:Yeah. So, like, today would be probably close to, like, 90.
Caryn:Wow.
Nicole:So on a Monday, when we're getting about 25,000 pounds of food of food rescue, we are also then basically food sorting all day on Monday.
Caryn:Okay.
Nicole:So we've got, yeah, probably about 60, 70 volunteers that are signed up for today.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nicole:And then, you know, maybe like a Tuesday or something, it might be 50. Yeah. You know? So it kind of ranges depending on what we have going on. Sometimes we have 2 or 3 different off sites in a day.
Nicole:Mhmm. Plus then our brick and mortar pantry in Eagan.
Caryn:Wow.
Nicole:So, it can range anywhere from, yeah, like 40 to a100.
Caryn:Yeah. That's a lot of people. Lot of help needed.
Nicole:Yeah. A lot of help.
Caryn:So how would someone go about volunteering for the Open Door?
Nicole:Yeah. It's really easy. That's, like, the one good thing about the Open Door is we try to prevent barriers from pretty much, like, either people getting food or for people wanting to volunteer their time. So we have a great application system on our website. So if you just go to theopendoorpantry.org, click on the volunteer info, and you can do a quick application.
Nicole:Essentially, it's just kind of getting your contact information, getting what you're interested in, you know, knowing what city you live in, those kind of things, and then you're able to either start right away or you can go to a volunteer orientation where it will kind of overview everything.
Caryn:Oh like all the different opportunities.
Nicole:All the different opportunities so then you're able to really see like oh that sounds fun. Because if I said hey you want to sign up to be a pantry stocker? Someone might have a different idea of what that might look like.
Caryn:Yeah.
Nicole:So we really go through all of the different things. Whereas off-site, it's a little bit easier to just kind of go through and, you know, be like, off-site pop up produce. That's kind of, you know, make sense. Mhmm. So, yeah, just going to our website is something that is super easy for folks to do and one thing that makes us kind of different is the fact that you can sign up for 1 shift and one shift only.
Nicole:You don't have to commit to, like, every Tuesday at 9 AM. Yeah. You can do it really. You could sign up that morning of for that afternoon, and that's great. That's super flexible.
Nicole:Yeah. So if you've got kind of like a busy schedule, those kind of things, you can always just fill in where you have time.
Caryn:Yeah. That's awesome. So is there anything else that you guys wanna talk about like a little bit about food insecurity or how we can go about getting this partnership together or anything else?
Nicole:From the standpoint of, like, food insecurity, I think that, you know, our biggest thing is, like, making sure that everyone has that opportunity to get food regardless of their circumstances.
Lynn:Mhmm.
Nicole:We never want people to feel burdened Mhmm. By that.
Caryn:I mean, food is so high priced right now.
Nicole:Right. It's there's not many people that aren't affected by food prices right now.
Lynn:Mhmm.
Nicole:And when we're faced with, you know, like raising heat bills or those kind of things, we wanna make sure that folks feel comfortable being able to pay their bills
Caryn:Yep.
Nicole:And still get food.
Caryn:Yep.
Nicole:So if it means paying your bills and coming to the open door and getting your food, like that will help. So you don't have to come every single month.
Nicole:Yeah. You can but you know it's kind of like
Caryn:hey this month is really tight, right?
Nicole:Yeah. Your breaks went out and you need, you know, $200 and, you know, that month, you know, or you just supplement all your healthy food.
Caryn:Right.
Nicole:You know, since we have the focus on healthy food and healthy food is usually something that is most expensive.
Caryn:Which is crazy.
Nicole:Yeah because you can go to McDonald's and get something for a dollar but it's not super nutritious. Right. You know. So yeah just focusing on the healthy part and being able to just really come and have that access whenever you need it.
Caryn:Alright. Great. Lynn anything else?
Lynn:I just want to thank Nicole again. You do very meaningful work, and you are a huge impact to the community. So thank you.
Nicole:Thank you.
Caryn:Yeah. So if anybody, stops by the Open Door, they'll probably see Nicole there.
Nicole:Yes.
Caryn:Yep. So I guess that's gonna wrap us up for today. Thank you both for coming and educating the community on this important resource that's available. And the fact that they're changing locations is a great time to talk about it because we don't want people going to the wrong spot. Rambling River Center is gonna be closed from November to April 2025.
Caryn:The temporary location will be at Faith United Methodist, which is located at 710 Eighth Street. For more information on the Open Door and pop up pantries or volunteering, you can go to theopendoorpantry.org or check our FarmingtonMN.gov calendar for future dates when they'll be in Farmington, usually the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 3 to 4:30. Well, that concludes this month's episode of the Farmington Feed. Thank you for listening. We look forward to connecting with residents with this podcast.
Caryn:If you have any feedback, guest requests, or ideas, email me at Communications@FarmingtonMN.gov. Don't forget to subscribe to the Farmington feed wherever you like to get your podcasts.
