More than 24 local businesses and caterers came out to supply food for the 4th annual Souperlicious fundraising event held at HOPE House last week.
Well-known members of the community were on hand to serve soup and some other special dishes, including Mayor Cam Guthrie, City Councillor Dan Gibson and downtown resource officer Constable Bryan "Buzz" Dean, a recipient of the Guelph Police service's Member of the Year Award in 2014.
“We get many local businesses on board to donate soup which we sell to the public as part of our lunch event,” said Karen Kamphuis, Executive Director of Lakeside HOPE House. "There were 27 different kinds of soup for everyone to enjoy. We have half of these that are part of our online soup orders and the other half were for those that stopped by HOPE House to eat in."
Last year, HOPE House made more than $6,000 from the lunch fundraiser. This year, the event was able to match the previous year's total, with $3,000 in lunch pre-orders before the event even started.
“For $10 you can enjoy one large bowl of soup or three mini bowls of soup, a dinner roll with butter, a drink and a cookie,” said Kamphuis.
Fan favourites were selling out quickly at the three-hour event. One of the popular items was the Prime Rib Chilli supplied by the local The Keg Steakhouse & Bar.
Kamphuis was thankful for the community support and involvement in organizing the event. The event's success wouldn't be possible without the support of volunteers.
“This is my first year serving at Souperlicious," said event volunteer Debbie King. "It’s amazing to experience the community coming together like this.”
“Souperlicious gives the community an opportunity to participate and contribute to the work of HOPE House," said Kamphuis. "In a typical day, HOPE House's Food Market distributes approximately 1,000 pounds of food to people in need. It takes many resources and funds in order to stock our shelves and the funds raised through Souperlicious goes to support the ongoing programs and projects at HOPE House.”
If you’d like to find out how you can get involved in the HOPE House community visit lakesidehopehouse.ca.
