Marnie Jensen is the program co-ordinator for the local soup kitchen, a small program that works under the umbrella of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
“We have a large group of volunteers who cook soup every Tuesday, which is distributed to members of the community as needed through various agencies. At this time we make about 900 servings of soup a month.”
Soupe de Tour welcomes many volunteers from the Cedar Crest Society for Community Living. These clients gain experience with valuable kitchen and social skills, while the program also benefits from their labour and enthusiasm, Jensen explains.
“We have, over the years, welcomed more and more Cedar Crest clients each week. Some are new and some have been with us for years since the program started.”
Several clients say they like cooking, and that they have learned a lot.
Looking up from some vigorous tossing in a huge, hot sauté pan, Cedar Crest client Jerod Douglas clearly has a flair for caramelizing onions.
“I want to,” he says. “I learn, and it is fun. Woo-hoo!”
Cedar Crest client Rick Chameoise says he “really likes setting the table,” as well as labelling all the soup containers, but also enjoys the cooking, so he is “going to keep it up.”
Jensen explains the Soupe de Tour program runs thanks to a South Cariboo Health Foundation grant and regular donations from Save-On-Foods, Safeway, Higher Ground Natural Foods and the Red Rock Grill.
“There is no big fundraising, and actually the demand has gone up quite a bit. Everybody would like more, but we are at capacity.”
Jensen says the money needed now is mostly to help pay for the kitchen, which is “very expensive” to rent (despite getting a charity rate from the District of 100 Mile House).
The cost of the groceries used to make the soup has also “gone up a lot,” she adds.
“We spend about $60-75 a week just for the groceries that aren’t donated – the potatoes, the carrots, and the protein is very expensive. Tubes of [ground] meat used to be $10, now they are $18.”
While they will gratefully accept donations of “soup-appropriate” foods, such as the frozen beans provided on May 16 by the 100 Mile House Food Bank, she notes the program can only use store-bought items due to food/health requirements.
“Anything like that helps, and it really does go a long way.”
Jensen says their group could also use some more core volunteers to help prepare the soup, even on alternating days or weeks to help give the current people a break from the community kitchen.
The current volunteers have been working with the Soupe de Tour program for five or six years, so could use an afternoon or a Tuesday off, she explains.
Once this homemade broth, potage, consommé, bouillon, chowder or bisque is cooked and its program helpers are all fed, the soup gets carefully cooled, iced, and distributed both fresh and frozen to agencies and social hubs around the community.
Fresh soup goes out for hungry residents on Tuesdays, delivered to the 100 Mile & District Women’s Centre, where local women “line up for it” on those afternoons; and to Loaves and Fishes Outreach, where it is cooled for distributing to individuals and families on Wednesdays.
Jensen explains the rest of the Soupe de Tour goes out frozen, to be distributed and/or heated and served through the Cariboo Family Enrichment Centre, the Food Bank, and other organizations, such as an emergency supply at the CMHA-South Cariboo Branch.
“The Stemete7uw’i Friendship Centre is the newest beneficiary.”
However, hungry folks wanting a bowl of hot soup at lunchtime on Tuesdays at the Valley Room kitchen (behind The Lodge/Red Coach Inn on Cariboo Highway 97) are welcome, and will not be turned away, she adds.
For more information, call the CMHA-South Cariboo Branch at 250-395-4883.