My wife and I visited Open Hand Atlanta to volunteer our time for a couple of hours to prep meals…read more Open Hand provides nutritional meals for those with chronic diseases, such as AIDS/HIV, different forms of cancer, etc. These nutritional meals promote and prolong healthier way of life. Once you arrive and sign in, you'll be taken to a waiting room area, where Open Hand staff gives you a rundown of their history and what their mission is. You also get the rules of the prep room and are gifted a one of a kind hairnet, plastic apron, and men with facial hair gets face masks. No jewelry may be at any time. Rings, necklaces, earrings, facial piercings, watches, etc. can NOT be worn. There are different things that you can do at this space, but I wanted to do meal prep. We washed our hands and grabbed plastic gloves. Keep in mind, the gloves are different sizes. The meal prep was like an assembly line. The meal we prepped was Beef Stroganoff on Noodles with Green Beans. With a scale, the first person weighed the appropriate number for the noodles, the second person weighed the right number of beef stroganoff, and the third person weighed the right number for green beans. There is then a fourth person who wipes off any excess food from around the rim of the food container. This is important so the plastic cover will seal appropriately. It's then put in this contraption that holds multiple containers and a person press seals it and puts it to the side. This is definitely quite a process, but once you get into the flow of it, it becomes easier. Some people make it a challenge against another group to see who can make the most meals. Side note: THIS PLACE IS FREEZING! The ENTIRE BUILDING IS COLD! Bring a jacket or hoody. Overall, this is a great place to come with a group or by yourself and do some charitable services. Fortunately, we came with a large group of my wife's coworkers, so we were able to knock out over 2,500 meals which was awesome! I'd definitely come back.

I volunteered at Open Hand two weeks ago (Saturday, July 22, 2017) and had a lot of fun. I didn't…read moreknow what to expect as far as working conditions, the general environment, and exactly what we would be doing. Would I be in some freezing cold meat locker? Would I be inside an insanely hot warehouse? Would I be breaking my already broken back moving heavy objects around? Would I be doing some mundane task for hours and be bored out of my mind? Fortunately, the answer to all those questions was no. I went with a big group to celebrate someone's birthday (a neat idea). Half of us did meal packing and the other half did market basket packing. I signed up for meal packing. Our meal packing session involved packing meals into bags and portioning food into individual containers (think frozen TV dinners). The food was already cooked and just needed to be heated up to be eaten. Market basket packing involves packing nonperishable foods. In this case, the food wasn't cooked and the recipients would need to cook it themselves. We signed up to work from 1pm to 4pm. Each of us had to register on Open Hand's website. After registering and reserving our spots, we received confirmation emails with information, reminders, and dress code requirements. One of the dress code requirements in my confirmation email said, "Long pants are preferred. Skirts or dresses must be shin length." I wore shorts. When standing, those shorts touched the top of my knees. My girlfriend, who also signed up for meal packing, wore shorts too. Her shorts were shorter. She ended up getting moved to market basket packing because of the length of her shorts. This wasn't a big deal, but the dress code requirements listed in the confirmation email should have been more clear about shorts or simply just said that long pants are required for meal packing. There was at least one other person in our meal packing group with knee-length shorts. When you arrive to Open Hand, the volunteer entrance is clearly marked. Each volunteer must sign in and sign out using a computer just inside the entrance. We arrived right around 1pm, checked in, and were ushered into an orientation room. The orientation was quick, about 10 minutes. A short video about Open Hand was played and then we got some in-person instruction. After that, we were whisked to our volunteer work areas. For meal packing, we had to wear hair nets and aprons. First, we helped prepare bags to place meals in, then we moved into the meal packing work area. This was a cool, clean room with various tables and assembly lines. One group was already sealing TV dinner trays when we arrived. We washed our hands and helped assemble bags with four meals in them: Monday lunch, Monday dinner, Tuesday lunch, and Tuesday dinner with cornbread and condiments (ketchup and mustard). It was pretty easy. Each person was assigned to place one or two items into each bag and pass it down. I was responsible for the ketchup and mustard. After a bag had four meals, cornbread, and condiments, it was tied and placed on a tray which was later stacked and carted off. We assembled 126 of these Monday-Tuesday meal bags. Two of our meal packing group were broken off and sent to the cornbread station where they individually bagged and sealed cornbread. The cornbread was already cooked and cut. After assembling the meal bags, we took a short break in the break room and then were called back into the meal packing room for another job. This time, we had to portion food into TV dinner trays which would later be sealed. This task was harder than the last because we had to handle food directly with our hands (wearing gloves of course) and measure correct portion sizes using scales. We packed 285 meal trays filled with chicken, mushroom risotto, and peas and pearl onions. The hands of the people scooping and portioning out the risotto and peas got tired. I helped a little bit with the peas and organizing and stacking the meal trays on bigger trays, but I mostly was responsible for placing a piece of chicken on top of the risotto. We ended up spending almost our full 3-hour allotment at Open Hand. The market basket packing group ended up finishing early, in under 1.5 hours. Volunteer Services Manager Julie Barwig was the person who oversaw our group. In the meal packing room, Andre led us for the meal bag packing and Shameka led us for the meal tray portioning. Everyone was nice and friendly. I enjoyed the experience so much that I'm now considering signing up to do meal delivery. Open Hand's mission statement: "Open Hand helps people prevent or better manage chronic disease through Comprehensive Nutrition Care, which combines home-delivered meals and nutrition education as a means to reinforce the connection between informed food choices and improved quality of life." The campus is located in the industrial Armour neighborhood of Atlanta near SweetWater Brewing Company and the Armour Yard rail yard on the southern edge of Buckhead.