La Soupe facts for kids
 |
|
| Formation | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Suzy DeYoung |
| Founded at | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Purpose | Food rescue, Food insecurity |
La Soupe is a special nonprofit organization located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It helps people by taking food that would normally be thrown away and turning it into delicious meals. These meals are then given to other groups that help people who don't have enough to eat. This process is called "food rescue."
Contents
How La Soupe Started
Suzy DeYoung, a chef from Cincinnati, started La Soupe in 2014. She had worked in restaurants for 25 years. Suzy realized that what she loved most about cooking was feeding people.
One day, she read a post on Facebook from a teacher. The teacher said some students were so hungry they struggled to climb stairs at school. Suzy immediately took soup and fruit salad from her restaurant to the school. She also sent students home with soup for their families.
Soon after, Suzy changed her restaurant's plan. For every quart of soup a customer bought, the restaurant donated a quart to a local nonprofit. She later turned her restaurant into a nonprofit organization. She realized she couldn't keep paying for all the donations herself.
By early 2019, La Soupe had received about 639,000 pounds of food that would have been wasted. They had also given out 357,000 meals. In February 2019, they were taking in about 5,000 pounds of fresh food each week. They used this food to make 3,000 servings for their partner groups. They worked in a 900 square foot space.
In 2019, La Soupe announced they would move to the Walnut Hills area of Cincinnati. This area is known as a food desert, meaning it's hard for people there to find fresh, healthy food. The new space was 5,000 square feet. It included a kitchen, a place for people to pick up food, and a teaching area. The move happened in September 2019.
How La Soupe Works
La Soupe works with local restaurants, farms, bakeries, and grocery stores. They also partner with food pantries. These partners donate ingredients that are still good but might otherwise be thrown away.
La Soupe then delivers these ingredients to local chefs. These chefs prepare meals in their own restaurant kitchens. Suzy DeYoung has said the process is like a bigger, industrial version of the TV show Chopped. In that show, chefs have to cook quickly with mystery ingredients.
After volunteers deliver the food, volunteer chefs quickly create recipes. They use whatever ingredients they have. Then, other La Soupe volunteers pick up the prepared meals. They deliver them to schools, churches, food pantries, and homeless shelters. These places then give the meals to people in need.
Most of the meals are soups. They often come with a mixed salad and rescued baked goods. Soup is a good choice because it can be stretched to feed many people. It can also be easily reheated in a microwave or on a hotplate. This is helpful for people who might not have a full kitchen.
La Soupe mostly runs with the help of volunteers. They also have a paid staff of 11 people. The organization also runs a take-out business in a rural area east of Cincinnati. This business helps bring in money to support La Soupe's work.
In 2017, a food editor named Polly Campbell praised La Soupe's way of working. She said it was "so unique and effective." La Soupe received a special award for their public service. It was the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities. La Soupe was one of only five groups in the whole country to get this award that year.
La Soupe's Programs
Ongoing Programs
- Bucket Brigade: This program involves over 60 local chefs. They receive food donations from La Soupe. They also use their own extra ingredients to make soup in their restaurant kitchens. La Soupe volunteers then pick up these prepared meals and deliver them to local nonprofits.
- Soupe Mobile: This is a food truck that uses a "pay what you can" system. This means people can pay what they are able to afford for their meal.
- Cincinnati Gives A Crock: This program teaches cooking lessons to teenagers. It also gives them a crockpot, which is a slow cooker, to help them prepare meals at home.
Special Events
In January 2019, La Soupe worked with Cincinnati State's Midwest Culinary Institute. They offered free meals to government workers who were not getting paid during a government shutdown. Area chefs volunteered to cook the meals. The Freestore Foodbank provided bags of food for people to take home. About 2,000 local workers and their families were served meals at Cincinnati State. They also took home 9,600 servings of food.
Awards and Recognition
- 2016: Outstanding Not-for-profit Business Leadership, National Recycling Commission
- 2016: Snail of Approval
- 2017: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities
In 2019, Suzy DeYoung was a main speaker at a special fundraising lunch in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event was called Women in Philanthropy Fundraising Luncheon.
See also
- Food rescue
- Food insecurity
