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Soup & Bread Returns to the Hideout

f1357de2-bf65-4b01-b351-0a081da727e4It’s soup season again and – I’ll be honest right up front – until November 8 we thought perhaps Soup & Bread had run its course. Maybe, we wondered, it’s time to pass the baton, do something else. Wouldn’t it be nice to go somewhere warm in February?
But then things changed. We think everyone’s going to need a bowl of soup this winter – or several, not to mention the chance to pay it forward to those in need of food relief.
So Soup & Bread 2017 is on. It kicks off January 4 at 5:30 pm at the Hideout, and runs every Wednesday through March 29. Come, bring your kids, bring your appetites, and bring your dollars. As ever all your pay-what-you-can-donations will go to help local food pantries.
This year, we’ve decided to ditch the weekly soup themes in favor of one simple idea: sanctuary. As most of you probably know, Chicago is a “sanctuary city” – and as such is threatened with losing federal funding under a Trump administration. With Chicago’s social services already starved by the state budget impasse, things may be about to get much worse.
So, in that context we’re asking soup cooks to bring soups that celebrate Chicago’s immigrant heritage – either your own or someone else’s. Bring on the pozole, the borscht, the harrira; the shorbit amas and the soupe joumou. We’ll be collecting recipes again and if we get enough we’ll try and put together another cookbook. To volunteer to cook, pick a date and email martha@soupandbread.net — and check the FAQ on our website to see what all’s entailed.
Of course, to do this all takes time, and some money. Once again we’re asking you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to Soup & Bread through our fiscal sponsors at the Social Good Fund. If everyone on this mailing list gave just $10 that would be a windfall for our lean organization. And if you give more – like, say $25, we’ll send you a custom Soup & Bread bowl (while supplies last; just put your address in the “comments” section). Once we cover our costs, all money donated online will also go to our partner food pantries.
Donate Now
There’s a longish Facebook post making the rounds from a Native American poet named Joy Harjo, in which she talks about Thanksgiving in the context of the ongoing state violence at Standing Rock. She closes with a poem that begins:
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
Our kitchen table may be a poky row of crock pots in the back room of a bar, but the sentiment holds. Come out and join us for sustenance and sanctuary this winter and help us rebuild one little corner of the world.
Thanks – we miss you!
Soup & Bread
PS: Oh whoops, one more thing. This month we’ll be selling cookbooks, bowls, and other Soup & Bread stuff at some holiday sales around town, including the Bloodshot Records Holiday Popup Shop on Dec. 3 and the Hideout Last Chance Holiday Sale on Dec. 20. Check the calendar at the bottom of our site for more events as they materialize.

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