Eric, an OHK volunteer, at the Open Heart Food Bank
Our Mission
Provide equitable access to nutritious food today, while building a food secure tomorrow.
Our Vision
Work with Community Partners to meet the most basic needs of vulnerable people in our community by empowering them to build better futures.
Our Guiding Principles
Dignity: Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
Innovation: Ending hunger requires innovative solutions.
Advocacy: Ending hunger requires action to create systemic change.
Collaboration: Hunger is linked to numerous issues, and the only way to solve hunger is to work with partners to address issues of health, housing, and employment.
Isaiah, an OHK volunteer, at the Dublin Senior Center
2025–2030 Strategic Pillars
• End immediate food insecurity by providing nutritious food.
• End the cycle of poverty through advocacy and partnerships.
• Improve and strengthen organizational capacity and infrastructure.
• Enhance program reach and impact through innovative strategies.
A message from the
Executive Director
Over the past year, I’ve found myself doing something I never expected: spending my weekends learning how to play golf with my sixteen-year-old son. He picked up an interest seemingly out of nowhere, and while I hadn’t swung a club in years (and had never been much of a golfer to begin with) I saw an opportunity for us to learn something new together.
Our first visits to the driving range were humbling. My swing was stiff, my back was sore, and everything felt unfamiliar. But slowly, bucket by bucket, we both began to find our rhythm. Eventually, we graduated from the driving range to the course—first nine holes, then eighteen. We’re still far from experts, but we have grown into the game together, learning, adjusting, and celebrating every small victory along the way.
This experience has been on my mind often as we launched the Open Heart Food Bank this year, one of the most ambitious and transformative undertakings in Open Heart Kitchen’s 30-year history.
Just like those early days at the driving range, the learning curve for opening a food bank has been steep. Our team has taken on an entirely new operational model, with new equipment, safety procedures, and inventory systems. They’ve had to master weighing in donations, managing warehouse flow, and establishing an efficient schedule to move food out quickly and safely to our Partner Agencies. The work is both mentally demanding and physically intense, and there have been real “sore muscles” along the way.
But also like golf, we’ve grown stronger and more confident with every swing.
Program Coordinators, Christi and Hannah, at one
of the Food Bank’s first food recovery pickups at the Pleasanton Costco
This year, we successfully on-boarded nine Partner Agencies, each now receiving and distributing fresh, nutritious food throughout the Tri-Valley. We built a warehouse operation from the ground up, learned from every misstep, listened to our partners, and adapted in real time. What started as a bold vision has become a fully functioning food bank that is already expanding access to healthy food for thousands of neighbors across the Tri-Valley.
Volunteers from Kaiser Permanente sorting produce at the Open Heart Food Bank
I am deeply proud of our team. They have the courage to try something new, a willingness to push through growing pains, and an unwavering commitment to showing up for our community every single day. This year reminded me that growth rarely comes easily, but it does come when people work together toward a purpose larger than themselves.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Your support has allowed Open Heart Kitchen to take this incredible leap forward, and your partnership will carry us through the next eighteen holes and far beyond.
With Gratitude,
