This week, Sprouts and Community Eats, in conjunction with the UBC Pottery Club, are putting on the second annual Souper Bowl. The event, which premiered last March, will be selling bowls made by members of the Pottery Club which will be filled with Sprouts’ soup. The proceeds go to a local food-oriented charity.
Sarah Wilson, a fourth-year anthropology and archaeology student, is the heart and soul behind the Souper Bowl. Wilson is the Community Eats director and vice president of the UBC Pottery Club, so a collaboration between the two groups was an obvious avenue for her. She was inspired by an event hosted by a cafe in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska.
“There’s a place called Beans Cafe and they make soups and stuff for homeless people. And they have this project called The Empty Bowl Project. So they have a bunch of potters make nice bowls and then people come and buy soup and all the funds go back to Beans Cafe.... I was in Pottery Club and I was in Community Eats and I was like ‘why don’t we do that?’” said Wilson.
This year, the Souper Bowl will be donating all proceeds from the event to Quest Food Exchange. Quest runs four not-for profit grocery stores in Vancouver that sell food at discounted prices which would otherwise go to waste elsewhere in the food industry. Their goal is to help low-income families get the nutrition they deserve.
This ethos mirrors the intentions of the Community Eats Program which supplies a by-donation lunch every Friday. For around $2, students can eat a vegetarian lunch with options like soup, potatoes, salad, fruit from Van Whole Produce and day-old bread from Terra Breads. The soup served at the Souper Bowl event will be a vegetable soup as well, made extra special by the beautiful handmade bowl donated by the pottery club.
The Souper Bowl is an opportunity for students to give back to the Vancouver community while supporting two UBC organizations. Of course, owning a lovely piece of pottery and having a free lunch sweeten the deal.
The Souper Bowl is happening on Friday, February 27 at 11 a.m. Bowls will be sold for $5-$20 and come with a serving of soup from the Sprouts kitchen.