Soup Night Helps To Feed The Hungry

PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTOS

For the seventeenth year in a row, Bread For Life held its soup-and-bread dinner this past Wednesday. The event drew more than 420 people to the cafeteria at Southington High School for a celebration of soup, music, and community. All proceeds from ticket sales went to support Bread For Life’s mission of feeding bodies and lifting up spirits.

Eighteen local restaurants made it all possible, each donating several gallons of their specialty soups to the cause. Their names will be familiar to anyone who goes out to eat in town:

Pedro Rodriguez, the manager of Senor Panchos, was present with members of his staff:

Attendees were treated to a unique form of table service. A team of students from DePaolo Middle School’s Leadership Club, organized by the school’s principal, Christopher Palmieri, circulated through the cafeteria bearing trays full of soup in paper bowls. They announced the type of soup to each table and handed them out to anyone who chose to sample it. There is an element of chance and surprise to the operation – after Italian wedding soup, for example, another server might come offering something very different, like clam chowder, or Polish pickle soup:

Bread from Longhorn, dessert donated by the Calvanese Foundation, D’Agostino Catering, and Lewis Farms, along with a little music, made it a complete dinner:

Missy Cipriano, the executive director of Bread For Life, spent much of the evening racing back and forth. She bustled from the kitchen, helping the middle-school students load their trays, to the cafeteria floor. There she greeted community leaders, Bread For Life clients and supporters, and the occasional young soup fan:

Soup Night is one of Bread For Life’s two major fundraising events. Combining the $10 ticket price from each attendee, extra donations, and revenue from the event raffle, Soup Night brings in several thousand dollars. That money is used to cover Bread For Life’s operating costs and to pay for things like the delivery containers that hold meals delivered to 85 people’s homes each day.

When asked why the night is devoted to soup, and not some other food like hot dogs, Cipriano listed a number of reasons. First, Bread For Life is the modern incarnation of what used to be called a ‘soup kitchen’ – the difference being that the nonprofit usually serves a much wider variety of fare, and it offers nourishing social connection and support services along with meals. Second, soup is a kind of food that many different restaurants in town offer in their menu, and it is easy to serve, requiring little more than a cup and a spoon.

Finally, soup is something everyone likes – and with 18 different choices, everyone can get the kind they like best, or learn to enjoy something that is new to them.