My friends, Martha and Jeff, asked me several weeks ago if I wanted to do some volunteer work on Christmas. I said sure! We checked out a few different organizations and then it dawned on me… duh! We should deliver meals for Open Hand. I have done many Open Hand routes in the past. Delivering these meals is a very heartwarming experience. Getting that one-on-one contact with the clients is great and you really start to see how much they appreciate the food and service.

So you might be wondering, what is Open Hand? Good question! Here is a little background on how Open Hand and Good Measure Meals work together as a social entrepreneurship:

“In 2004 Good Measure Meals™ was launched by Atlanta nonprofit Open Hand. Good Measure Meals™ is part of a growing trend in the nonprofit world called social entrepreneurship. While GMM is a separate business unit, all profits generated by GMM go to support the work that Open hand does in the community: “helping 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.” For more information about our parent organization, please visit the Open Hand website at www.projectopenhand.org.”

We had great fun out there today. It was extra special because it is Christmas Eve.

This is me holding one of the bags full of meals. Each client on our route got one of these bags. It contains a complete lunch and dinner for two days.

This is Martha and I outside of one of the stops. Martha was the navigator. She is holding the very important route sheet that contains detailed instructions on where to go and what to do.

This is Jeff holding one of the bags as we are waiting for the client to come to the door.

This is Jeff and I outside another stop. This seemed to be some kind of nursing home.

One of the clients had a cooler outside for the meal to be placed in when they aren't home.

We met a really nice couple at the last stop. They quickly invited us inside to chat. Lucky for us they agreed to have their picture taken.

This is Ted and Caroline. Such a sweet couple! We really enjoyed visiting with them.

AND they even gave us a little gift… peanut brittle! It was so good. We enjoyed it on the drive home.

Thank you Ted and Caroline! We loved the peanut brittle!

I will be on vacation next week so my next post will be in the new year.

Happy holidays to you all! I hope that you have a safe and merry holiday!