Come meet Maggie Stuckey, author of Soup Night. She will be our speaker at our monthly lecture, Beers to Your Health at Fort George Brewery’s Lovell Showroom (Corner of 14th and Duane in Astoria) on Thursday October 9 at 7 p.m. (Doors open at 7 p.m.) Free cup of soup from a recipe in the book while supplies last. Books will be for sale as well.
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The Magic of Soup
By Maggie Stuckey, Author of Soup Night
There was a time, not all that long ago, when people knew everyone on their block, when neighbors watched out for each other, helped each other, enjoyed getting together. Nowadays, people are more likely to hurry home from work, stay inside with eyes fixed on some type of screen, interacting with pixels rather than human beings. Many of them wish things were different, but aren’t sure how to break out of their isolation.
Here’s a simple solution: make a huge pot of soup, invite your neighbors over, and watch what happens.
I can tell you what will happen, because I have seen it myself in my home town (Portland).
Within a very short time, strangers become friends. Warm connections develop between people who are very different from one another on the usual measures of occupation, education, and political persuasion. Children, under the loving watchfulness of all the adults, are free to be kids. Meanwhile, their parents are free from the awful modern anxiety of having to watch them every single second. There is less crime. Seniors and people living alone feel more secure, knowing help is right at hand.
All because they get together for a simple supper of soup and bread once a month. They call it Soup Night, and it has become a huge part of their lives. No one wants to miss it.
Once I witnessed the magic of this particular Soup Night, I decided to look a bit farther. And quickly found neighborhood groups all over the country doing much the same thing: Organizing a soup get-together for the explicit purpose of creating community. In Boston, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Denver, Tucson, folks are making soup and inviting strangers to their home — with amazing results.
Soup is simple, unpretentious, warm, nourishing (in every sense of that word), and has a way of putting people at ease. It’s also easy to make, nutritious, inexpensive, infinitely expandable, and it tastes wonderful. There is nothing better for bringing people together.