What screams comfort food more than homemade soup? Well in my mind it is not the soup made at the Soup Sisters events, but the camraderie in the kitchens that comforts me. It is the volunteers who make the soup-making possible, they are my hallelulah.
I am a Soup Sister volunteer and I love every moment. Each and every volunteer brings a different background and as we set up the ingredients and the equipment for soup-making that evening, we talk about other things (usually a Sunday, so a little more interesting than just work). The same volunteers appear again and again despite busy lives and schedules, so we get to know each other. The dedication to Soup Sisters impresses me. We meet any challenges with wit and laughter. The soup-makers arrive and we are ready. Soup Sisters was started here just over three years ago by Calgarian, Sharon Hapton. The story has now been told many times, Sharon was celebrating a milestone birthday and she gathered a group of girlfriends to make soup. The soup made that night was delivered to the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter the next morning and the concept was born. Soup Sisters provides bowls of nourishing soup every month to shelters, to nurture and support those affected by domestic abuse and family violence. Little has changed in the process over the last three years, but the amount of soup made has. Soup Sisters is now in ten cities across Canada in fifteen different locations (culinary partners), and making over 8,000 bowls of soup each month for the various shelters.
Soup Sisters
Unplugged By Karen Miller
22 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
Sharon has received a Woman of Distinction award from the YMCA and in 2011 was named a Chatelaine Woman of the Year.You know what they say (or they should anyway) - behind every good woman is a great team of volunteers. Sharon herself will tell you the only special thing she has done is surround herself with an amazing group of dedicated and accomplished women and men. She says the volunteers across the country have become very special people in her life. Some volunteers have been with Sharon since the beginning. Others join as they become aware of the organization and some soup-makers become volunteers themselves. When asked what she feels the volunteers mean to the organization Sharon responds, “I love that people approach me as complete strangers to start up a Soup Sisters in their own city and then meet others who approached me and this group of likeminded and wonderful women become coordinators for where they live and good friends”. The circle starts small and becomes large. Every evening starts with an introduction to the organization and a speaker from the shelter benefitting from the soup made that evening. Sharon’s voice, her demeanor and calm presence exude comfort and a nurturing feeling. I often make the same presentation