Press Release: Office Space

PRESS RELEASE
December 14, 2020

Open Table Expands Footprint in Downtown Maynard with Acquisition of New Office Space

New facility provides both storage and collaborative facilities for fundraising and planning

Open Table announced today that it has acquired an office condo at 31 Main St., which is contiguous to its pantry location at 33 Main St. in downtown Maynard. The new office space answers Open Table’s growing need for both office and storage space that allows staff to move easily back and forth from its food pantry.

When Open Table opened its 7,000-square-foot food pantry at 33 Main St. in 2017, the core facility was dedicated to the receiving, sorting, storing and distributing food as well as community dinners. Since then, Open Table also has added a mobile program, which brings food directly to communities in need.

Over the past three years, Open Table has optimized its food pantry to help support those afflicted with food insecurity, while operations have been constrained by a lack of quiet workspaces for planning and fundraising activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more critical for staff members working with the public to have an isolated place to go during the workday to handle the administrative parts of their job and to have space to safely store files and materials.

When a new office condo property became available on Main Street, it answered the need for support staff to easily move from desk to public area. Because Open Table is able to store materials and seasonal equipment in the condo basement, it has been able to reconfigure the main facility to better address its operational needs.

“Since much of the work we do is collaboratively managed, having an office setting where staff can meet in small groups and work through logistics is critical to the success of our programs,” said Jeanine Calabria, executive director of Open Table. “The new office space provides Open Table with much needed quiet space for meetings and the writing required to organize and launch our programs.

In fall 2019, Open Table reached out to a small group of supporters who generously funded the acquisition of the space understanding the need to build the administrative infrastructure vital to the continued operations of the organization. Open Table has recently made several improvements to the front of their main facility to be more in keeping with Maynard’s downtown cultural area. 

For information, visit https://www.opentable.org.