Soup Sisters pivots to offer virtual soup-making parties
One of my favourite achievements was being a founder of the Kelowna chapter of Soup Sisters back in 2011.
This amazing organization brings together charitable-hearted people to gather and collectively make a big batch of soup to provide them with a monthly supply of wholesome home-made meals made by people who care from their own community.
In the past eleven years, Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers have grown to 27 cities across Canada and launched into the US. Each location is run by local volunteers in their own community. That is the simplicity of Sharon Hapton’s vision: to give people a way to give back to their community by doing something tangible - getting into the kitchen, spending a night with friends, rolling up their sleeves and creating something heartwarming, heartfelt and with it a message of support to families in crisis.
But due to the pandemic and physical distancing measures, those events came to an abrupt stop in early March 2020.
Sharon Hapton knew that "the soup must go on".
The organization was able to take swift action by switching to recipes previously developed for large kettle production with Kitchen Partners in Edmonton. Since the onset of COVID and with the support of Versa Cold refrigerated transportation, Soup Sisters now delivers over 5,000 lbs of fresh soup each month to 40 charitable agencies country-wide.
More than 100,000 servings of soup have been delivered to agencies in support of frontline health workers, domestic violence emergency shelters, marginalized seniors, transitional housing for homeless, First Nations, youth in crisis, centres for drug addiction and mental health, and Food Banks.
The Soup Sisters newest initiative, The Virtual Pot, launched in March 2021 to bring back the original concept of people getting together to do good while having a great time making soup to #soupforward to family and friends. In the safety of their own homes people across North America are joining celebrity chefs in the fine art of soup-making. Virtual Pot events support Soup Sisters monthly delivery of soup to communities in need.
I will be hosting a soup-making session featuring my Okanagan Orchard soup from the Soup Sisters Cookbook on April 24 at 4 p.m. SIGN UP HERE.
This is a charity organization and donations are gratefully accepted. Your contribution is a valuable investment in our communities that generates tangible action through real results. Please go to our Soup Support page to find out all of the simple ways in which you can donate. Soup Sisters is a registered not-for-profit organization and donations over $25 are eligible for a tax-deductible receipt.”
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