Meet the Souper Heroes

On a cold autumn night, lively chatter can be heard in the back room of Seventh Son Brewing while a crowd of people mingle. At tables and chairs throughout the room, partygoers sit, bowls of piping hot soup in hand.

More than a dozen family-size slow cookers filled with colorful, fragrant homemade soups stretch across tables lining the room’s perimeter. Proud makers stand behind, ladles at the ready. Creamy chicken and wild rice, vegan butternut squash, and roasted tomato and pepper are just a few of the varieties offered.

An empty slow cooker resides at the end of one table, slowly filling with cash. At the end of the night, all the funds collected will be donated to Neighborhood Services, Inc., a Columbus nonprofit serving low-income residents through a food pantry and other support. The evening’s organizer, Ann Miller-Tobin, moves through the room engaging with attendees. Miller-Tobin spends her days at Mid-Ohio Foodbank, employed in the organization’s agency and program services division.

“It’s an additional way outside of work that I can support our partners,” Miller-Tobin says about her effort to line up a slew of home cooks to make soups for this fundraiser. “Plus, I love to cook,” she adds with a smile.

THE POWER OF 'JUST SHOWING UP'

One night nearly a decade ago, Tricia Keels, a Bexley mother and marketing professional, was putting her three children to bed when her son moaned, “I’m so hungry.” Keels calls his effort “an obvious stall tactic,” as he had eaten well over the course of the evening. However, she says, the moment stopped her in her tracks. “I had a vision of a mother in Columbus putting a child to bed who was truly hungry,” she says.

Keels walked into her living room shortly after tucking her children in for the night and told her husband, Chris, “I think I might try something.” She was inspired by an initiative in Chicago called Soup & Bread that uses food-filled seasonal gatherings to raise money for local hunger relief organizations. She soon contacted one of the Chicago organizers, who told her to run with the concept in Columbus.

In 2012, Keels launched Souper Heroes with the group’s first soup-sharing event—she affectionally calls it a “Souper Supper”— held at Woodlands Tavern. Since those first days, the organization has stayed true to its mission of having “fun with food and community while providing for those who don’t have enough of either,” Keels says.

The nonprofit focuses on the power of individual action, which when combined, results in collective impact. “My one goal was just to show up, try something and not be scared,” Keels says about herself during those early days. “‘Perfection’ has never been in our vocabulary but ‘action’ is.”

Martin Butler, the executive director of Neighborhood Services, Inc., says the financial boost from Souper Suppers held in his organization’s honor always make an impact.

“One dollar equates to four meals,” Butler says about current metrics in the food assistance arena. “Tonight, if we raise $200 that’s 800 meals,” he says from behind a Crock-Pot of soup that he made for the Seventh Son event. “Last year, our organization distributed 612,902 meals and right now we’re on pace to serve 635,000 in 2019. Every single dollar makes a huge difference in whether or not we can feed someone.”

Tricia Keels, a Bexley mother and marketing professional

CALLING ALL SOUPER STARS

Keels affectionately calls the growing community of soup-makers and citizens who attend the organization’s events “Souper Stars.” Keels commends these participants, saying they offer so much power in just showing up. “No piece of good is too small,” she remarks.

These devotees sign up to bring homemade, heartwarming soups to a Souper Supper, held only during cold-weather months, or what is traditionally soup season. Or, they are members of a dedicated lot who commit themselves to attending the suppers regularly to pay it forward while building community.

Shilah Griffeth, a local entrepreneur, says that she has made soup for three Souper Heroes gatherings. At Seventh Son, she brought what she calls “a vegan take on J. Gumbo’s Bumblebee Stew.” Cajun inspired, the dish is sweet and spicy, filled with chili, tamales, vegetables, black beans and agave syrup. Griffeth serves it over rice.

“Whenever I get a chance to do something that benefits the community I like to participate,” Griffeth says. “I always meet somebody new that I want to stay in touch with” at these events.

“If you’re ever in a bad mood or feeling isolated or alone, come to a Souper Heroes event,” Keels says, because her organization focuses on not only paying it forward economically but also alleviating emotional poverty through community. “You will be greeted by smiles, warm soup that will fill your belly and people who have made the effort to get off the couch and connect with others.”

SOUPER SUPPERS 2.0

In recent months, Keels’ work has turned to bringing the Souper Supper format to corporate team-building initiatives. “We believe that our events will bring teams together in ways they haven’t come together before,” she says. “They cook for each other, serve each other, pay it forward into the donation Crock-Pot together and create an impact that will go beyond their walls.”

Also of great importance to the founder is getting the recently launched Souper Supper Starter Kit into the Central Ohio community and beyond. The downloadable guide provides step-by-step directions on how to host a supper, including logistics, how to recruit soup-makers and how to market the event. Keels is there to help, including setting up an event landing page on the organization’s website and providing social media marketing for the event.

“Souper Heroes was getting too big for me,” Keels says about what moved her to launch the starter kit. In addition to the organization, she is employed full-time and, with Chris, is at work raising their three children, ages 17, 15 and 10.

In the early days of the nonprofit, Keels says that she had a hard time saying “no” and needed to learn to better prioritize the time she spent trying to make Souper Heroes impactful. “By the end of the third season, I cried,” she says. “I took on too much. That’s when I realized I needed to change the way the organization worked.”

With the starter kit, Keels hopes to empower community members like Miller-Tobin, who hosted the Seventh Son event, to organize and successfully execute their own Souper Suppers. The nonprofit has traditionally partnered with organizations working in the hunger relief sector, but Keels says that she’s open to use of the Souper Supper format for other community-minded projects.

“We have had people who have downloaded the kit and asked, ‘Can I use this to support some other organization?’” Keels says. “My answer is always, ‘You support whatever organization you are passionate about.’ I will never stand in the way of someone who wants to help somewhere.”

Find upcoming Souper Heroes events on their Facebook page or at souperheroes.org.