|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Coming off a 30th anniversary year in which its staff, volunteers and supporters accomplished incredible, inspirational results and milestones, Open Heart Kitchen is motivated to keep the momentum going throughout 2026.
Growing existing programs while introducing new efforts – all while navigating moments of revenue uncertainty given governmental and economic realities – are at the forefront for the nonprofit working hard to serve vulnerable residents struggling with hunger, nutrition and shelter.
“We can’t thank the TriValley community enough for empowering OHK to do even more of what it’s been doing for the last 30 years, and that’s making sure folks don’t have to worry about whether or not their most basic human needs will be met,” Executive Director John Bost told me by email Monday.
“We believe that when individuals and families don’t have to worry about the basic necessities of living, then they redirect their energies toward dreaming, hoping, and thriving,” he added.
OHK achieved so much during 2025; I was stunned seeing some of the statistics cited in its annual impact report released two months ago.
At the top of the list was OHK served 998,482 total meals, a major increase helped greatly by the Open Heart Food Bank that launched in March 2025. OHK distributed the equivalent of 836,863 meals via the food bank through nine partner pantries across the Tri-Valley.
OHK’s own Community Meal Program provided 114,379 meals to 1,082 people in need (families with children, seniors on fixed incomes and residents experiencing homelessness). Its Senior Meals Program served 36,964 meals to 707 local seniors, and another 10,276 meals were given to guests staying in its overnight Open Heart Refuge shelter in Livermore.
During the year, the nonprofit also crossed the 8 million meals threshold dating back to its founding in 1995.
Some other grabber numbers: 7,939 showers, 3,815 loads of laundry, 453 clients at its Vineyard Resource Center, 10,415 nights of rest indoors at its shelter, 21,229 volunteer hours of service, 1,071 volunteers and a record-setting annual gala with 350-plus attendees netting over $260,000.
To boot, its fundraising exceeded expectations to close the calendar year. “Absolutely amazing,” Bost told me.
“These days, many Americans may find no shortage of voices seeking to divide and conquer, but when it comes to rallying in support of our most vulnerable communities, they have a wonderful way of standing up,” he said. “This standing tall for justice was certainly on display last fall when the dual monsters of the government shut down and delayed SNAP payments were on many Americans’ minds.”
“Although the spectre of these two realities loomed large in our civic realities, so too did our collective TriValley spirit of generosity and solidarity,” Bost added. “Individuals, groups, clubs, teams, places of worship, and others joined forces to support local nonprofits to ensure that members of our community did not have to wonder where the next meal is coming from or if they’d have money to meet the monthly budgets.”
Some of that shadow still hangs into 2026, with ongoing fallout from the federal House Resolution 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“As a result of that bill,” Bost said, “we’re going to see more ‘trickle-up economics’ to the wealthiest 10%, and we’re going to see less support for the bottom 90%, particularly low-income and extremely-low income families.”
“That’s going to show up in reduced benefits, higher eligibility requirements, more conditions … and more burden on states and local systems already strapped for capital,” he added.
The achievements from 2025 and early in 2026 continue to give Bost hope.
“Open Heart Kitchen saw a need to act more as an intermediary between organizations that secure permanent-housing opportunities, and we’re already seeing the fruits of that decision, as there has been an uptick in our overnight shelter clients finding housing,” he said, citing one recent example.
As the year got rolling, OHK was named the beneficiary of the Livermore Valley Craft Beer Foundation’s Livermoron West Coast IPA – it received 100% of the donations from the release event Feb. 26 and a percentage of the beer’s sales.
OHK will also be one of the nonprofit beneficiaries of the 2026 Las Positas College Run for Higher Education & Tri-Valley Non-Profits from 9 a.m. to noon April 25. The theme, appropriately, is “Superheroes”.
Before that, Bost will be one of the panelists at Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance’s “Justice on the Table” presentation from 10 a.m. to noon next Friday (April 17) in the Patelco Credit Union Conference Center in Dublin.
“Justice on the Table is a community forum designed to explore the structural drivers of food insecurity, including housing affordability, wages, healthcare access and public policy,” TVNPA said. “This event brings together regional leaders, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss what it will take to create long-term, equitable solutions.”
To learn more about OHK, visit openheartkitchen.org.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
