Open Hand Atlanta Inc.

“A review will be conducted before form 990 is finalized.”

“Applicable persons provide initial as well as subsequent annual disclosure of potential conflicts. Any potentials are discussed or reviewed by the board.”

“Open hand atlanta, inc. Developed goals, used peer comparisons and benchmarking using the guidestar website.”

“Upon request, on-line reporting agencies, as part of contractual or grant agreements”

“The mission is to help 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.”

“Other qualifying individuals may include dependent children of any open hand client, regardless of their health status. Nutrition education is delivered on a regular basis with the meals, as well as in group and clinical settings. Menus are developed and products are selected by open hand's registered dietitians, and include therapeutic and preferential menu options. C.open hand's market basket pantry program provides a weekly supply of both nonperishable groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables to low-income, medically-eligible clients who are empowered to prepare their own healthy meals with nutrition guidance provided by open hand registered dietitians. This accommodates a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables including more locally grown produce. D.in addition, open hand provided approximately 11,565 emergency nutrition supplements (ens), in the form of meal replacement snacks and nutrition supplements, to low-income, medically-eligible men, women and children, often during extended waits for their health care appointments. Patients who have had dental procedures may also receive mechanical soft meals provided through this program. E.central to open hand's mission of comprehensive nutrition care, every client is assessed at intake and offered consistent nutrition education by open hand registered dietitians (rds), which includes printed nutrition education materials and, depending upon their assessment, individual or group nutrition coaching sessions. These group sessions have a community or public health focus, and include topics such as portion control, healthy eating, hands-on food preparation, physical activity, and disease self- management. Client counseling sessions include individualized nutrition assessment, diagnosis, education, and goal-setting. Follow-up reinforcement is provided by open hand rds, and may include monitoring of client health metrics, nutrition education, assessment of health goal progressions, referral(s) to additional support services, and/or phone consultations. F.open hand provided medical nutritional therapy (mnt) to 781 clients in 2016. Mnt is prescribed by a clinician, targets a specific medical condition, and includes a nutrition diagnosis, therapy and counseling services - all performed by open hand registered dietitians (rds). Designed by the american academy of nutrition and dietetics, mnt includes a specific plan of assessment, nutrition diagnoses, intervention, evaluation/monitoring, documentation, and communication with client's health care provider. This service is available to men, women and children who have a nutrition-sensitive chronic disease and who are committed to improving their health through better food choices and behavior modification. G.as the state of georgia's lead partner for the nationally acclaimed cooking matters program - a six-week program utilizing an evidence-based curriculum originally designed by share our strength, open hand cooking matters teaches participants how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a limited budget - offering practical, hands-on instruction such as nutrition, meal preparation, grocery shopping, food budgeting that empowers participants to make the most of their limited resources. Cooking matters helps open hand address the co-occurring issues of food insecurity, obesity, and related nutrition-sensitive disease, which are often more common among at-risk, disadvantaged populations.”

“With an additional 209 nutrition phone consults with a gmm registered dietitian. Gmm expansion in the corporate community produced an additional 242 nutrition services to individuals and 37 group programs through our collaboration with corporate sports unlimited and a total of 153 wellness programs, including lunch and learns, cooking demos, and wellness challenges were implemented for our corporate and community partners. Good measure meals continued growing the catering extension of the social enterprise, which in 2016 secured multiple preferred catering vendor contracts for the academic and corporate communities, expanding the catering menu significantly and served over 316 breakfast, lunches, and dinners, with an additional 722 healthy bread trays to over 11,958 community customers.”

“In 2016, open hand extended the reach of comprehensive nutrition caretm by achieving several key goals: a.through our comprehensive community nutrition services, open hand and good measure meals served a combined total of approximately 19,086 clients in 2016. This includes more than 1,607,228 home-delivered meals, meals provided in a congregate setting, as well as meal supplements. In 2016, our registered dietitians worked directly with 7009 clients, providing extensive nutrition education ranging from the instruction on the nutritional value of the foods in their diet to calorie balance and diabetes management, conducting home nutrition assessments, and providing in-clinic medical nutrition therapy (mnt). B.the following programmatic milestones were achieved in 2016: 1.prepared meals program - achieving high quality and client satisfaction is always a primary focus for open hand. In 2016, we continued to make progress in the quality of our meals and these improvements were reflected in our annual satisfaction survey results, 96% of clients rated the quality of meals as excellent or good; 93% of clients rate the variety of meals as excellent or good - up from 83% in 2015. In 2016 our client survey focused on measuring the impact of our services. In 2016, 14% of survey respondents self-identified as persons living with hiv/aids, 47% were seniors served in senior centers, and 40% persons living with other chronic illnesses/disabilities. Of the clients that had a chronic condition, 96% of our clients reported that their medication had stayed the same in the last six months. 2.over the past year, we had an increase in utilization of our services. Nutrition education classes have seen a significant increase, as 76% of clients attended an average of at least 5 nutrition classes in a year. Of the clients that attended the classes, 65% of them indicated that they are currently utilizing the educational handouts supplied by open hand registered dietitians, and following nutrition guidelines related to food preparation, recipe adjustment, knowledge building, and shopping for healthy foods on a very limited budget. Prior to attending these classes, only 35% of the respondents indicated that they followed nutrition guidelines. 3.market basket program - administered by open hand registered dietitians (rds), the market basket program is an innovative solution to reduce food insecurity, increase intake of healthy foods, and increase nutrition knowledge in high-risk adults in the atlanta area. Open hand volunteers deliver program participants weekly market baskets which include fresh fruit and seasonal vegetables, along with nutrition education materials and recipes relevant to the contents of that week's basket to encourage consumption. Open hand provided 6,190 market baskets to an average of 119 clients each week in 2016. 4.promoting nutrition and healthy living among low income individuals and families - open hand's cooking matters program had three overarching goals in fiscal year 2016: to maintain programmatic work in metro atlanta, establish two new cooking matters satellites in camden and appling counties (public health districts 9-1 and 9-2), and develop relationships with wic clinics to provide nutrition education. In 2016, our combined programmatic goals for metro atlanta and south/coastal georgia: support a total of 24 cooking matters courses, 36 store tours, and 36 demonstrations. Additionally, host 36 store tours and 36 demonstrations at wic clinics. We successfully established satellite regions in south/coastal ga where we implemented 5 cooking matters courses, 2 store tours, and 15 demos; in metro atlanta, we delivered 21 courses, 18 store tours, 50 demos. At wic clinics, we completed 169 demos and 37 store tours. Overall, we enrolled 2,224 participants in our cooking matters trainings. 5.youth and families nutrition & meals - as part of an increased focus on outreach to youth and families, open hand developed the healthy balan”