At Soup For You! (SFY!), our mission is “feed, nourish and comfort.”
We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization located in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. We opened our doors in February 2015 as a soup cafe where all are welcomed to a hearty lunch without regard to age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, housing status, immigration status, religion, socioeconomic status, or physical/mental health condition. We are excited about how the community has come together at Soup For You! over the years. We repeatedly hear our guests and others in the community comment about three main ways we impact the neighborhood.
Food insecurity was a growing issue prior to the pandemic and has now evolved to record levels primarily due to the rising cost of food. As food prices increase, the reliance on processed food with low nutrient value also increases. In addition meals are often skipped as a food budget just doesn’t go as far. We work to provide healthy, nutritious food for people in our community who might not otherwise be able to obtain it. Here’s how we do it:
We firmly believe that strong communities are critical for quality of life. During the pandemic when we couldn’t gather for lunch people were so grateful for the bag lunches we distributed but would regularly say that what they missed most was the community at SFY!. Here’s how we do it:
Community is formed by the bringing together of people. What better place to do that than over a bowl of soup. At SFY! we welcome a mix of people, neighbors from Longfellow/Seward (and beyond), businesspeople, seniors, those experiencing food insecurity, the unhoused, those looking for connection to their community, to name a few. Conversations are shared at the tables and friends are made. For some of our guests, lunch at SFY! is their one opportunity to socialize during the day.
We have an amazing team of volunteers and love to welcome new faces knowing that being a part of SFY! increases their awareness of what people coming together in community can accomplish. In addition, they get to see the impact of food justice issues and allows them to experience being part of the solution through their service.
SFY! also conducts outreach and education in our community by speaking at outside events (ex., Faith Mennonite Church) and bringing in groups (ex. Augsburg Nursing Program participants, MN Landscape Arboretum High School Summer Camp Program students) to dine with us and learn about food waste, food insecurity and food justice.
Did you know that food waste is not just what we scrape off our plates? Factors such as farmers leaving unharvested crops in fields due to low prices or overproduction, problems occurring during the transportation and manufacturing of food, and retailers rejecting food that doesn’t meet appearance or color standards all contribute to 80 million tons of food being wasted each year in the US. That’s enough to make 149 billion meals annually. We ensure that thousands of pounds of food are served or distributed every year instead of landfilled. Here’s how we do it:
Our partners supply us with much of the produce in our delicious soups by procuring local overstocks or non-saleable items that would otherwise be discarded. Most of our side items also begin as organic, often non-saleable ingredients sourced from local stores, bakeries, and cafes. With some culling and editing we create wonderful salads and fruit bowls. All soup is handmade fresh onsite daily using fresh – and primarily organic – ingredients. Most of our broths are made from vegetable peelings from the previous day. We rarely use any processed ingredients which increases the nutrition and greatly decreases the amount of packaging that is discarded.
Bags of groceries are prepared and distributed each week with food that has been rescued by our partner organizations as well as the excess produce not used in our soups.
