On February 23, through the magic of Zoom, we were transported into the kitchens of our members to join together to prepare food, share cooking tips and connect with friends across the city. It all began last December, when a generous community member had an idea to share soup recipes combined with a food drive. They presented this idea to UJA Genesis and the UJA Young Women’s Philanthropy group. In response, the Soup’s On committee was formed under the leadership of Kelly Ostro, Leah Baruch and Mara Klein.
This group recruited a team to create Soup’s On food bags. Each team member was given a tote bag and a shopping list to purchase ingredients to prepare a healthy and nutritious soup. Included in the bags were a recipe card and an apron.
The target to create 100 bags was met and on February 22, the bags were distributed to Bernard Betel Centre members and Circle of Care clients. We engaged our Meals on Wheels volunteers to deliver the bags to our members. Each participant was given the ingredients to make a healthy and nutritious soup and had some extra food for the week. 20 food bags have been reserved as we will soon be running the Soup’s On program for our Russian-speaking members.
132 participants joined the Zoom program on February 23. Kelly Ostro was the “guest chef” and our own Maria Lindgren facilitated the session. Some preferred to watch the cooking demonstration with plans to prepare the soup after the session. Others, wearing their Soup’s On apron, were in their kitchen ready to follow along as Kelly provided instructions. For one hour, we felt a little more connected.
