Soup & Bread raises funds for Boys & Girls Club
The College of Wooster's kick-off event for the weekly Soup & Bread fundraiser was held Wednesday, Nov. 15 and raised more than $2,000.
This year the Wooster Boys & Girls Club's new high school after-school program benefited from the event.
Scores of community members and college students shared a meal of soup, bread, grilled cheese and dessert at Kittredge Hall campus with the common goal to raise money to help address issues of food insecurity.
Soup & Bread is a weekly event held at the college each Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with two evening meals offered every academic year. All college students and community members are invited to attend and come together every week to share a meal and do a bit of good.
The Soup & Bread motto is "eating simply so others may simply live." Each year the 42-year-old college fundraiser partners with a different local agency to address an issue surrounding food insecurity and hunger.
"We realized we were serving kids in grades five through seven and just because they had gone on to high school didn't mean they didn't continue to need the support and guidance we can provide," said Christine Lindeman, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Wooster.
One of the key components of the Edgewood Middle School program has been offering a meal after school. The high school program was started prior to having a budget available for a similar meal program.
Nate Addington, director of civic and social responsibility at the college, said one out of four students at Wooster High School utilize the reduced lunch program. "Twenty percent of our kids at the high school are food insecure," he said.
The high school program is open after school until 6 p.m. and offers a variety of classes, clubs, programs, activities and field trips. "We also have a space to hang out and just be," Lindeman said.
The goal for the year is to raise $9,000 for the Boys & Girls Club. "That will fund the after-school meal program for 30 kids for one academic school year," Lindeman said. "We are hoping that by the 2020 fiscal year we will have gained enough capacity in our budget to fund it ourselves."
Last year over $20,000 was raised. Anything raised this year over $9,000 will go to a variety of different relief efforts.
Any hunger-based groups are invited to call Addington to apply for funds at 330-287-3020 or email him at naddington@wooster.edu.
The majority of behind-the-scenes help for the meal is handled by student volunteers. Students from a Biology of Nutrition class were on hand for the kick-off event, doing everything from dishes, to providing baked goods, to raising additional funds.
College students Eliza Cullen, Samuel Casey and Amelia Kemp attended the kick-off event.
Kemp said, "Personally I really like to come every week. I think it's really nice we are able to use a meal swipe to donate to a good cause. I get to eat and donate. There is no reason for me not to come."
Cullen and Casey echoed Kemp's sentiment. "It's so easy to do. You might as well come to an event like this. It's benefiting something that's bigger than us."
Some students swipe their meal cards twice when they attend, allowing them to donate twice as much.
To keep costs low, the majority of the food is donated. Buehler's donates soups and pastries for the weekly events throughout the school year.
One group of local college alumni used the event as an excuse to get together and share a meal. Drew Kerr, College of Wooster class of 1971, saw the event posted online, and he and his wife called alumni friends and met up at the dinner.
"We're here to support the Boys & Girls Club," Kerr said. "And the food is excellent."
The cost for all Soup & Bread meals is either $6 or one swipe of a College of Wooster student meal card.
Lindeman said, "We are really grateful for the community support and hope to see as many people as we can every Wednesday join us for Soup & Bread."
The next evening Soup & Bread event will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 13 from 5-7 p.m. at Kittredge Hall, 1351 Beall Ave., Wooster.