​Open Hearts Place’s history dates back to 2009, when Open Hearts Bakery began as a mission of St. Matthews United Methodist Church (UMC) in Morganton. At first, the goal of Open Hearts Bakery was to raise money to fund the emergency needs of people in the community seeking help from St. Matthews with rent, food, gas and/or medical bills. However, church leaders quickly learned two important lessons: 1) the need would recur every month; and 2) providing this type of assistance did not help those in need work toward long-term stability. 

In 2012, St. Matthews leaders addressed this by implementing new policies for the Open Hearts Bakery. Specifically, the Bakery began hiring part-time employees who are economically or employment challenged; providing training and support to enable these employees to progress to full-time employment; and collaborating with other local organizations to connect employees to wraparound health and social supports.
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This approach achieved success in that bakery employees increased their financial and employment stability. However, as most still struggled greatly to find an affordable place to rent or purchase in Burke County due to the increasingly severe housing shortage, the employee’s long-term stability remained precarious.

In 2020, envisioning a community approach to addressing this root cause of instability, three of the church leaders of Open Hearts Bakery along with two Burke County residents founded Open Hearts Place (OHP) as a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. OHP’s founding mission remains in place today: to provide homes and purposeful opportunities for families to increase life skills, gain stability, and become more self-sufficient.