Soup’s On feeds community
Nicole Tavenner
Opal Loveless, an RSVP volunteer, scoops soup in the warm kitchen of the Wander Inn, an outreach of Journey Be, to feed the community.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Berl Tiskus
Nicole Tavenner
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Enough hot soup to fill 16 200-gallon horse tanks has been made and served at Soup’s On during the six years it has been in existence. Accompanied by bread and dessert, that’s more than 50,000 bowls of soup that have nourished community members and visitors.
“We average about 50 (diners) a day,” said Charlotte Gaustad, “the boss” who manages the money at Soup’s On.
The kitchen is open four days a week, Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The soup is always free, but Soup’s On accepts donations. Some people come for the company although Gaustad said the majority need a meal.
Soup’s On serves an average 2,000 kids during the year, with young children coming with their families. The kitchen has seen an influx of high school kids too, mostly during the school year, Gaustad said.
There’s always a warm, inviting atmosphere. The aroma of simmering soup, baking bread and coffee fills the air as servers ladle out the soup and chat with customers. There are cheery tablecloths on the tables and the coffee is always on. Everyone is welcome, and there are usually two soups, made from scratch.
Kitchen Manager Mary Edelman and the folks who volunteer to make soup have served a wide selection of flavors, including: salmon Florentine, potato, taco, Italian wedding soup, beef vegetable, butternut squash with lemongrass, cream of broccoli, chili, split pea, along with other varieties.
The mission of Soup’s On is to help who, Journey Be’s Reverend John Payne refers to as the five Ls — “the little, the least, the last, the lost and the lonely.”
Many of the volunteers have been with Soup’s On “since the get-go,” according to Gaustad. Soup’s On was an idea dreamed up by Sandy Farrell, Reverend Payne and his wife Sharon, Pat West and Charlotte Gaustad in 2009. Sandy, John and Sharon were the main start-up crew with Edelman, Zana Niblack and Carol Werner quickly joining the effort. Volunteers from other civic organizations make regular appearances - such as the Montecahto Club and Polson Community Church who come in once a month to make soup.
Although Farrell has a full time job now, she still makes soup once a month with a group from Sunburst Mental Health Services.
“I personally think the noblest of human endeavors is volunteering,” John said.
The Soup’s On crew is an interfaith group, and “They run their own ship,” he added.
Through the years, the kitchen has continued to be vital to the community.
“I got into it because I thought it was needed when we first got started, and I think it still is,” Niblack said.
She said diners are a mix of those who need it and those who come because they like the food.
Soup’s On maintains a pantry and three freezers so cooks can come in and make soup, although many bring ingredients.
“We just got some hamburger, turkeys and chickens,” Niblack said.
She and other volunteers take the meat home, cook it, shred it and bring it back so it’s ready to go into the soup pot.
Soup’s On does a food drive before hunting season when people are cleaning out their freezers, and they get some wild meat from generous sportsmen and women.
The kitchen can always use more volunteers — soup makers to come in to cook on a regular basis, clean up crews, people who will serve or a person who could pick up donated food from the Polson Farmers Market on Fridays. Someone who’s a grant writer would be a great help too, according to Edelman.
The kitchen also provides a way for Salish and Kootenai College students to put in some community service hours.
Student Dawn Scott comes to Soup’s On as one of her psychology class’ required 30 hours of community service. She washes dishes, cuts vegetables, and helps with whatever else needs to be done.
The Wander Inn and the Soup’s On kitchen also get used when Farrell brings groups from Sunburst on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons for art and cooking groups.
The cooking group, called the Recovery Café, always raises the garden in front of Soup’s On. The art group sells their creations at the Polson Farmers Market.
The Polson National Alliance on Mental Illness and other groups also utilize the facility.
To keep up with expenses and necessary repairs, the all-volunteer staff holds a fundraiser every February, with two different events.
Every year Dick Bratton, who owns Alpine Tipis, puts up a tipi in front of the soup kitchen and volunteers take turns sleeping in it until the group’s fundraising goal is reached. This year’s goal is $25,000.
The reason for sleeping in the open is to show empathy for people who are homeless during the cold weather and or need food.
Monies from this year’s fundraiser will be used to continue fixing up the apartment on the second floor of Journey Be along with the fireside room of the transitional housing used for homeless people.
The group’s other fundraiser, Winter Fest, will be held Feb. 21 at the Mission Valley Elks Club in Polson. This year’s dinner, a backyard barbecue, includes both a silent and a live auction. (See sidebar below for more information.)
Alice Erb will be collecting auction items. For people who would like to donate, Erb said she would prefer new or very gently used items, “nothing that looks remotely like a yard sale,” she said.
To donate items call Erb at (406) 250-3189.
Edelman would like to avoid the yearly scramble for funding to keep Soup’s On open by attracting at least three corporate sponsors.
A $15,000 contribution from each sponsor would take care of food, expenses and provide for a salaried position at Soup’s On to oversee operations.
Soup’s On is located in the Wander Inn at the Journey Be Church at 101 Seventh Ave. W.
