Dear friends,

We want to take a moment to share some exciting updates with our community. As many of you know, Open Table MDI has been in a season of transition, and we are deeply grateful for the patience, encouragement, and generosity you’ve shown along the way.

We are thrilled to announce that we have secured funding for a full-time chef who will help guide our kitchen and nourish our community with both meals and heart. The search process will be beginning very soon, and we’re eager to welcome someone into this vital role.

With this step in place, we are planning toward reopening our doors on Tuesday, January 6th—the first Tuesday of the new year. We cannot wait to gather again around the table, sharing food and connection with all of you.

That said, we still have work to do.

We are actively fundraising to ensure we can open our doors fully and sustainably, and every contribution—big or small—helps bring us closer to that goal. If you are able, your support today will directly help us make our reopening a reality.

If you are inspired to help us continue this work, please reach out to us here or make a gift on our website.

Open Table MDI has always been more than a meal—it’s about belonging, community, and care. We couldn’t do this without you, and we’re so grateful to be on this journey together.

With deep gratitude and hope,

Open Table MDI Board of Directors

Over the past week, our hearts have been full as we’ve felt the outpouring of love, gratitude, and support for our beloved leader, Mahandeva Singh.

Many of you have reached out after learning that Mahandeva has decided to step down from his role as Head Chef of Open Table MDI to focus on his health.

If you have not yet read his beautiful and heartfelt letter, you can find it below. It is a testament to his passion, dedication, and the joy he has poured into this community.

For close to a decade, Open Table MDI has been a place where food becomes more than nourishment – it becomes connection.

Every Tuesday, our kitchen at 116 Cottage Street hums with the sounds of chopping, stirring, laughter, and conversation. Volunteers bustle about, and neighbors, old friends and new, gather over plates of warm, lovingly prepared meals. Some take their suppers to go; others share them at our tables; still others receive deliveries at home. In all, we feed an average of 350 people each week.

We’ve built a network that is as strong as it is authentic – partnering with organizations like the Bar Harbor Food Pantry, College of the Atlantic, Bangor Savings Bank, Island Connections, Healthy Acadia, the Bar Harbor Garden Club, Bar Harbor Congregational Church, and the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine. This is a web of care that stretches far beyond our kitchen walls.

While Mahandeva will no longer be overseeing the Tuesday meal, he has graciously offered to continue serving as Executive Director behind the scenes: handling accounting, fundraising, ordering, and more. But to keep our suppers going, we must now fill the enormous gap left by his departure as Head Chef.

This is our moment of decision – and of possibility.

We see two clear paths forward:

Path 1 — A Fully Funded Future
We raise the funds to hire a new chef and sustain the Tuesday supper program for years to come. Our annual expenses have averaged around $250,000, a goal we’ve consistently met through grants, private donations, and community support. But because Mahandeva donated the majority of his time, we now face the need for additional funds to cover a chef’s salary.

Our vision is to secure two years of funding – enough to ensure stability while we continue cultivating a sustainable donor base for the future.

One possible way this could happen:
4 donors at $30,000
4 donors at $10,000
100 donors at $200
200 donors at $100

Path 2 — A New Home Under a Partner Organization
We explore becoming part of another Island-based organization whose mission and values align with ours. Our fully equipped kitchen, experienced volunteer base, and deep knowledge of the community could make Open Table MDI a valuable asset to the right partner.

No matter which path unfolds, one thing is certain: the need for what Open Table MDI provides has not gone away. The shared meals, the conversations, the friendships formed across tables – these are the threads that weave our community together.

We are asking you, our friends, neighbors, and partners, to imagine what it would take to ensure Open Table MDI’s continued presence in our community. Whether you are able to give, connect us to potential donors, or open a conversation about partnership, your involvement matters now more than ever.

Open Table MDI has always been a labor of love, built by many hands and generous hearts. We have risen to meet challenges before, and we believe we can do it again – together.

If you are inspired to help us continue this work, please reach out to us here or make a gift on our website.

The table is set, the air rich with the promise of what we might create, and the next course of Open Table MDI’s story waits to be cooked, seasoned, and shared by all of us.

With deep gratitude and hope,

Open Table MDI Board of Directors

I can’t think of many things I’ve had to do that feel harder than this, but I’m writing to let you know that, effective immediately, after this week’s Tuesday supper, I will be stepping down permanently as head chef of Open Table MDI.

Just over a year ago, I had major surgery—one that most people take two to three years to fully recover from. When I came back in May to continue running the supper, I thought I was strong enough. I was not. Each week, my body told me it was too much. Each week, I told it to be quiet. Last weekend, I received the unmistakable message that I can either continue to run the supper, or I can continue to be on this Earth. I cannot do both.

It is with deep sadness, and also humility, that I choose my health and my life over the thing that has brought me such joy and purpose for the past seven years. I would be lying if I said I don’t feel like a failure. I would be lying if I said I don’t feel like I’m letting you all down. But that is my work to do, and for now, I am only beginning to reach the place of acceptance.

What does this mean for Open Table MDI?
For now, after the meal on the 12th, the community supper will be on hiatus for an undetermined amount of time. Our board will be meeting soon to explore options moving forward, including the possibility of hiring a part-time cook to take over the supper. More updates from them will follow.

What can I do to help?
If Open Table MDI matters to you, and you want to see it continue beyond my time here, the best way to help is to donate generously and encourage others who can to do the same. In addition to our regular operating expenses of about $17,000/month, it will cost an additional $50,000–$60,000/year to hire someone to run the supper.

When Puranjot and I started this in the basement of the Bar Harbor Congregational Church in 2018, we had no idea it would grow into what it has become: a loving community project. We have nurtured it as best we could, given it everything we had, and watched it become something far bigger than us. Open Table MDI has always been about you—our community—and it has always relied on you. If it is to survive, it will be because the community wants it to.

WIth Gratitude…
I want to thank all the volunteers who have been the backbone of Open Table MDI from the very beginning, many of whom I now count as forever friends—people I might never have met otherwise. It has been one of the great blessings of my life to work beside you, laugh with you, and learn from you. You taught me how to be a leader, something I didn’t know I had in me. You gave me strength, courage, and the confidence to do hard things and still smile about it. I owe you a debt of gratitude I will never be able to fully repay.
I also want to thank the many amazing people who have supported us over the years—especially the McNally Family and the Witham Family. None of this would have been possible without your kindness, generosity, and steadfast commitment to community and food security.

In addition, I want to extend my deep gratitude to our Board of Directors. Your dedication, guidance, and steady support—often behind the scenes—have carried Open Table MDI through both celebrations and challenges. You have given your time, your energy, and your wisdom to keep this mission alive, and I am so grateful for the care you have shown to me, to our volunteers, and to the community we serve.

Finally, to everyone who has ever stepped into the warmth of our Tuesday suppers: thank you. Thank you for bringing your hunger—not just for food, but for connection, for belonging, and for care. Thank you for trusting me to feed you, to welcome you, and to make a place for you at the table. This has been the work of my heart and the joy of my life. Even though I will no longer be stirring the pots each week, I will carry the spirit of this table with me always. My deepest hope is that you will, too—and that you will keep finding ways to feed each other, in body and in spirit, for years to come.

With love,
Mahandeva Singh, Executive Director