La Soupe facts for kids
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| Formation | 2014 |
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| Founder | Suzy DeYoung |
| Founded at | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Purpose | Food rescue, Food insecurity |
La Soupe is a special group in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are a nonprofit, which means they help people without trying to make money. La Soupe takes food that would otherwise be thrown away. They turn this food into yummy meals. Then, they give these meals to other groups. These groups share the food with people who don't have enough to eat. This effort helps fight food insecurity, meaning when people don't have reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food.
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How La Soupe Started
La Soupe was created in 2014 by Suzy DeYoung. She was a chef and restaurant owner in Cincinnati. After working in restaurants for 25 years, Suzy felt tired. She realized that her favorite part of cooking was feeding people.
One day, she read a message online from a teacher. The teacher said some students were so hungry they struggled to climb stairs at school. That same day, Suzy brought soup and fruit salad from her restaurant to the school. She even sent students home with soup for their families.
Soon, Suzy changed her restaurant's plan. For every quart of soup a customer bought, the restaurant donated a quart to a local charity. She later turned her restaurant into a nonprofit organization. She realized she couldn't keep paying for all the donations herself.
By January 2019, La Soupe had saved about 639,000 pounds of food. They had also given out 357,000 meals. In February 2019, they were saving about 5,000 pounds of fresh food each week. They were providing 3,000 meals to partner groups.
In 2019, La Soupe announced they would move to a new, bigger space. This new location is in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. This area is known as a "food desert," meaning it's hard for people there to find fresh, affordable food. The new space is much larger and includes a kitchen, a place for people to pick up food, and even a teaching area.
How La Soupe Works
La Soupe works with many local businesses. These include restaurants, farms, bakeries, grocery stores, and food pantries. They collect food that is still good but would otherwise be thrown away. This is called "food rescue."
After collecting the food, La Soupe delivers it to local chefs. These chefs then prepare meals in their own restaurant kitchens. Suzy DeYoung compares it to a TV show called Chopped. In that show, chefs get a mystery box of ingredients and have to quickly make a dish. La Soupe's volunteer chefs do something similar, but on a much larger scale. They quickly create recipes using the rescued ingredients.
Once the meals are ready, volunteer drivers from La Soupe pick them up. They then deliver the prepared meals to schools, churches, food pantries, and homeless shelters. These places then give the food to people who need it.
Most of the meals are soups. They often come with a mixed salad and rescued baked goods. Soup is a great choice because it can be stretched to feed many people. It's also easy to reheat, even if someone only has a microwave or a hotplate.
La Soupe mostly relies on volunteers. They also have a paid staff of 11 people. The organization also runs a small take-out business in a rural area. This business helps bring in money to support their main work.
In 2017, a food editor named Polly Campbell praised La Soupe. She said their way of working was "unique and effective." La Soupe even won a big award called the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award. This award is like the U.S. Nobel Prize for public service. La Soupe was one of only five groups in the whole country to receive it that year.
La Soupe's Programs
La Soupe has several programs to help people and reduce food waste.
Ongoing Programs
- Bucket Brigade: This program involves many local restaurant owners and over 60 chefs. They accept food donations through 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 charities.
- Soupe Mobile: This is a food truck that offers meals using a "pay what you can" system. This means people can pay what they are able to afford for their food.
- Cincinnati Gives A Crock: This program teaches cooking lessons to teenagers. It also gives them a slow cooker, called a crockpot, to help them cook at home.
Special Events
- Helping Furloughed Workers: In January 2019, La Soupe helped government workers who were not getting paid during a government shutdown. They worked with the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State. Area chefs volunteered to make meals. The Freestore Foodbank also provided bags of food for people to take home. About 2,000 local workers and their families received meals. They also took home 9,600 servings of food.
Awards and Recognition
La Soupe has received several awards for its important work:
- 2016: Outstanding Not-for-profit Business Leadership, from the National Recycling Commission.
- 2016: Snail of Approval, an award for sustainable food businesses.
- 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.
See also
- Food rescue
- Food insecurity
