On Friday, Aug. 17, OPEN M will open its doors for the monthly Mountain of Food program and will hand out an expected 7 to 9 tons of food to more than 300 residents. At the event, OPEN M also will distribute 300 shopping carts to those attending: one cart per family will be distributed upon check-in.
OPEN M is able to provide these much-needed carts to their clients thanks to a grant from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, along with a donation from Montrose Zion United Methodist Church.
While the doors open at 9 a.m. and service continues until 11 a.m., Summit County residents traditionally begin lining up as early as 6:30 a.m. to ensure they are in line to load their grocery carts. Volunteers and staff begin arriving nearly as early to begin assembling the various grocery stations throughout OPEN M’s multi-purpose room.
While the specific food distributed varies based on availability, items may range from fresh fruits and vegetables to nonperishable canned items.
In 2017, OPEN M’s Mountain of Food program served 208,478 pounds or over 104 tons of food.
Located at 941 Princeton St., Opportunity Parish Ecumenical Neighborhood Ministry (OPEN M) serves more than 9,000 individuals annually with education, food, employment, social and health services — all intended to break the cycle of poverty and improve the health of our community, one family at a time. For info, visit www.OPENM.org.
