Support From the Faith Community Evident in So Many Ways

Since the day Open Hand officially opened its doors in the kitchen of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church back in 1988, the faith community has played an vital role in helping Open Hand fulfill our mission.

Today, faith organizations find a wide variety of ways to give back, and Buckhead Church is certainly no exception.

Just last month, Open Hand’s efforts to provide healthy meals and nutrition education to our neighbors in need received a tremendous boost in the form of a $144,000.00 contribution from the church! The generous gift was made possible by Buckhead Church’s annual holiday giving and serving initiative known as BE RICH. This initiative urges church members to “Rise to the occasion — to unleash a wave of generosity. To be rich in a big, big way.” This year, their efforts to give and serve focused on sickness, poverty, hunger, and children-at-risk, and they were greeted with generosity that greatly exceeded their original goals!

“As part of our focus on hunger and poverty, we want to support Open Hand’s efforts to provide home-delivered meals and nutrition education to people with critical or terminal diseases, as well as homebound seniors. Specifically, we’d like to help cover the additional cost of food due to inflation over the past year,” said Reverend Billy Phenix, Pastor at Buckhead Church.

Be Rich 2011 Celebration from North Point Media on Vimeo.

In addition to the very generous financial support, hundreds of members from Buckhead Church have volunteered hundreds of hours in the Open Hand kitchen throughout the year, packaging and delivering thousands of meals. One such Buckhead Church volunteer is Megan Linger, who is passionate about rolling up her sleeves and pitching in wherever possible to be of service.

Of course, the church’s involvement extends beyond the kitchen. In fact, Megan is one of twenty-five Buckhead Church volunteers who took it upon themselves to carpet and paint areas of Open Hand’s office space that were in obvious need of attention. According to Megan, “It was so much fun to be able to give Open Hand an “extreme office makeover” of sorts for their secondary office space. Our staff implemented a colorful design scheme to boost morale among employees, who work tirelessly to raise money to fund nearly two million meals a year for the critically ill and homebound in our city.”

In a unique (and literal) show of support, Buckhead Church also hosted a wonderful night of music and laughs that benefitted Open Hand and a number of other local nonprofit partners. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy headlined his second Backyard Bash, with all proceeds going to the church’s Intersect partners, who serve families and children in their our own “backyard.”

Attendees enjoyed cupcakes from Gigi’s of Buckhead, fun “backyard” games and décor, and a country music set from Buckhead Church musicians. Foxworthy debuted on the Buckhead stage on a riding lawnmower and kept the audience captive and laughing for almost an hour.

The event raised in excess of $100,000.00 — a tremendous tribute to the commitment both Buckhead Church and Foxworthy have made to their community…and to Open Hand. We couldn’t be more thankful.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
To find out more about how your faith institution can become involved in Open Hand’s work in the community, or if you would be interested in Open Hand’s customized health and wellness or diabetes education programs for your own congregation, please contact Roz Tucker at (404)419-3320 or by email at rtucker@projectopenhand.org.