🥣 Soup for You! brings gourmet approach to free community meals

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In June, Soup for You! Cafe relocated from its longtime home in Seward to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, bringing its daily free meal offering to downtown Longfellow with it. I stopped in recently to observe a typical day in action and chat with the volunteers who make it happen, ahead of the group’s annual fundraiser on Saturday. 

Background 

Soup for You! is the brainchild of Chef Judah Nataf, who grew up as an orphan in Tunisia until he was adopted by Americans when he was 8. Landing in Minneapolis more than 40 years ago, he spent stints of homelessness along the river until he landed a job cooking at the defunct West Bank soup kitchen St. Martin’s Table. He took to the art of soup making, and spent the next 15 years developing an adventurous menu of international soups prepared from whatever ingredients were available that morning. 

From those years in the kitchen, and the time eating at soup kitchens while unhoused before that, he developed a conviction about the importance of a dignified experience. He dreamed of opening his own operation that would stand in contrast to many of the kitchens he’d patronized, which often took an industrial approach that hustled people through a line of food that was cheap and easy to make in bulk, and then hurried them away after they finished their last bite. (Though, he’s quick to point out that he’s grateful for anyone that makes an effort.) 

He launched Soup for You in the basement of Seward’s Bethany Church in 2015. The operation grew steadily in both the volume of people it served and the volunteers who powered it. In addition to daily meals, it also began distributing groceries, clothes, and winter gear. When COVID hit, the group pivoted to distributing lunches and groceries out of the front door.

In 2022, the Bethany Lutheran Church congregation that helped birth the cafe disbanded and donated its building to Augsburg University to hold onto for a future use. Last year Augsburg announced it would sell the building to become the permanent home of the Somali Museum of Minnesota, leaving the cafe in need of a new home. 

After a brief search, the group landed at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the 120-year-old church behind the East Lake Library that was one of the most visible places of refuge during the unrest of 2020. The new digs are a little more cramped than at Bethany, but the church has been a generous host, allowing them use of the space for free. And while many of their regular patrons and volunteers have followed them a neighborhood over, their proximity to downtown Longfellow has brought a new stream of regulars in need. 

Offerings 

Judah’s guiding principle is bringing a sense of choice, dignity, and gourmet to the soup kitchen experience. That means table service, with volunteers who take orders and bus dishes. It means scratch-made soups with flavors from around the world, cooked with mostly organic ingredients — often sourced locally, sometimes as local as neighbor’s gardens. It means plating the sides artfully. It means staying open before and after meal service to allow people to chat and relax over coffee and dessert. 

Pulling it off requires a cadre of volunteers and daily creativity. At a recent service I attended, chef Judah and sous-chef-in-training Carolyn Williams-Noren had been there since the morning preparing two soups: Greek Stew and Fall Lentil Herb. (As is often the case, they didn't have the ingredients for the planned Summer Lentil Herb on hand, so they had to make a few seasonal substitutions and coined a new soup.) Besides cooking the soups, much of Judah's time is spent soliciting ingredients or the money to buy them, which come from nonprofits like Sisters Camelot and Twin Cities Food Justice, grocery stores like Whole Foods and Seward Co-Op, or from neighbors and their gardens. On this particular Tuesday they double their prep work because Wednesdays are the busiest day of the week, as the meal is paired with a grocery giveaway.

Judah continuously tastes the soups as he bounces between his numerous chores, tweaking the flavors with dashes of this and that right up until it's time to serve. Patrons start arriving around 11:30 and file into the basement gymnasium, where workers from Metro Work Center, a group that employs adults with disabilities and is also headquartered at Holy Trinity, have set up large round tables and chairs. They socialize while waiting for service to start, sipping coffee donated by Peace Coffee and perusing tables and a cooler full of free groceries. There’s also a free store of clothes, socks, and blankets.

Once the chef gives the go-ahead, volunteers fan out and begin taking tableside orders and retrieving them from the kitchen. On this day, the soups are served alongside chicken salad, potato salad, and buffalo chicken bites donated by Whole Foods, along with fresh fruit and bread, and desserts from Turtle Bread. The room takes on the familiar din of any cafe during the lunch rush, which is soon joined by music from the 11-member house band known as the "Grateful Fed," which belt out renditions of "Stand By Me" and the official Soup For You anthem on instruments ranging from the stand-up bass to the musical saw. Volunteers continue circulating, offering a second bowl of soup or bussing dishes.

There are about 100 active volunteers who power the operation, a dozen or two of which show up on any given day. Carolyn, the sous-chef in training, began volunteering at the beginning of the year. In a story arc virtually everyone echoed, she says she came in as a volunteer on a whim and immediately fell in love with the camaraderie forged in the bustling kitchen and getting to know the community of regulars. She's volunteered pretty much every week since. It's a motley mix of retired neighbors, members of the church, and quite a few college students from a program at Augsburg College.

Judah’s pitch for volunteers is simple: "It's a simple way to do good. There are lots of ways to do good, but this is one where you actually get to meet the people you're helping."

Eat, volunteer, or donate

The cafe is open Monday through Friday from noon to 1, though you can arrive at 11:30. Anyone can attend, whether or not they're in need. Meals are free with an optional donation.

Interested volunteers can learn more and sign up here. They also take donations of food, including garden produce, and money.

Speaking of money: Their annual fundraiser is Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Vine Arts Center in Seward and will feature a silent auction and live music. More info here.