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Chop Chop! New Moon volunteer Tony Basile slices and dices for Stone Soup. Photo by Mary Kate Cunningham |
CommentsStone Soup Feeds Body and Soul
Published: February 11, 2010by Olivia Dwyer
Ready to Stir: New Moon's Aaron Oropeza shows off his big stirring stick. Photo by Mary Kate Cunningham
Click on images for slideshow
I’m sitting alongside a friend and fellow rumbling belly at a folding table in the gym of the old Rec Center on Jan. 24, a Sunday night. In front of me is a placemat decorated by a local elementary student, and a vase with tissue paper flowers in a rainbow of colors made by the Girl Scouts. I’m facing the main entrance, watching people cross the threshold.
There is a middle-aged man in a Northstar uniform who arrives alone, but soon meets a familiar face and settles in to talk and share a meal. A young couple I recognize arrives, and soon my twosome has grown to a foursome. A family of five arrives toting a set of matching bowls. Young parents carrying or chasing small children come in, the adults gathering around a table and the kids dancing to the live music, twirling and stomping with abandon.
It’s a scene populated with players from all walks of the Truckee community. They have all come together for the first Stone Soup evening of 2010, and all will leave with smiles that are the result of good company and good food.
Penny Fink, Deb Ryan, and Kaili Sanchez came together to organize the Sunday evening Stone Soup gatherings in the winter of 2009. The name comes from a fairy tale in which a traveler arrives in a village and begins to make soup using just water and a stone. Everyone brings what they can to add to the pot, and in the end there is enough of a delicious soup to feed everyone present.
Sanchez works for Project MANA, which sponsors the project, and has worked with Fink to organize the event. They have found other community organizations to volunteer each Sunday, bringing members to prepare a soup of their own recipe. On Jan. 24, Slow Food Lake Tahoe made a white bean and fennel soup with butternut squash, carrot, onion, and thyme from a recipe by Billy McCullough, owner of Dragonfly and founding member of SFLT. The soup was served with bread from Truckee Sourdough, one of many local businesses that donate to Stone Soup.
“The goal is to have a community event where everyone comes and has fun,” says Fink. “People who can donate do, and people who can’t just come.”
The turnout for each Stone Soup is about 140 people each week and features live music to entertain the hungry crowd. Fink recalled an evening in 2009 with a spinach/tortellini soup that was so popular volunteers were running to Safeway all night for ingredients to keep the pot full. When the New Moon Natural Foods volunteers showed up on Jan. 31, they were warned that SFLT had made 25 gallons and nearly run out. To be safe, they whipped up 30 gallons of ribollita, a Tuscan soup with white beans.
“What I’ve always liked about the idea [of Stone Soup] is that it’s not about Slow Food or the Rotary Club or Dragonfly,” McCullough says. “It’s a true community event, about getting everyone involved.”
With the economy in a nosedive in early 2009 — and community spirit following close behind — Deb Ryan saw an opportunity to bring people together to weather the hard times.
“Part of the reason we did it was the feel of isolation and desperation last year,” Ryan says.
“It was awesome and it was crazy,” says Aaron Oropeza, who works at New Moon and attended his first Stone Soup evening when he volunteered Jan. 31. “The facilities [at the old Rec Center], it’s just like a home stove, so it takes a while to get hot. It was a little tough, but we got through it.”
But even with the heat rising in the kitchen, Oropeza was glad to be a part of his first Stone Soup.
“In the end it was awesome because everyone came up and was really complimentary about the soup and grateful for our effort,” says Oropeza.
As I walked home through the dark and cold on Jan. 24, warmed by the delicious soup and sense of community, I felt just as happy to have been part of Stone Soup.
All are invited each Sunday to the family-friendly event, which features live music. Soup is served starting at 5 p.m. Donations help defray costs of the facility and related expenses. Email pennyfink@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering.
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