In a world often filled with hurt, nothing offers comfort like a hot bowl of soup.
Grandmothers have forever provided chicken soup for all ills.
Actor Eli Wallach in the 1966 western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly boasts to Clint Eastwood he has a loving brother who would never deny him a bowl of soup. (Wallach was the Ugly and lying at the time, but no matter.)
Now, a group of Victoria women who call themselves the Soup Sisters have made themselves a crucial part of the assistance and help provided at the Victoria Transition House, a shelter for women and their children.
Once a month, they make batches of soup from scratch, about 80 litres in total, which is immediately taken to the Victoria Transition House.
“Soup is something that really warms people,” said Soup Sisters organizer Ginny Glover.
“If somebody is sick, you fix them a bowl of soup. If somebody is needy or going through a rough time, a warm bowl of soup is just a great thing. It makes you feel good,” said Glover, a professional artist and sculptor.
A half-dozen Victoria women started Soup Sisters in 2011. It was based on a program started in Calgary in 2009 to provide soup for causes devoted to women and children who had been abused or were in distress. Within a few years Soup Sisters had expanded to other Canadian cities. The group now operates in 21 communities across the country.
The idea works simply. In Victoria, for example, up to 20 people meet once a month for an evening at London Chef, a cooking school, café and caterer on Fort Street. They prepare four batches of soup — one chicken, one meat and two vegetarian.
Participants pay $55 for the use of the professional kitchen and the ingredients for the soups. It also pays for some wine and a salad to be enjoyed by the soup makers when they are finished, usually two to three hours later.
“It is a wonderful event because people just really have fun,” Glover said. “The participants get soup, salad, a glass of wine and a chance to socialize. And they have made 80 litres of soup for people. It’s just a neat thing.”
Tracy Lubick, director of development for the Victoria Women’s Transition House Society, said the monthly gift of soup is a welcome break to the centre’s budget.
With the gift of a freezer, also from Soup Sisters, the shelter is able to keep soup on hand for use by clients. And the soups are nutritious and substantial enough to stand in for a full meal.
Children staying at the shelter can take a serving of soup to school or to an outing and get to eat something special.
The special nature of the hand-made soup — the chance to meet the makers or read the Soups Sisters’ notes attached to the containers — provides an emotional boost for women and children who have often experienced trauma.
“Anything we can do for them when they come into the shelter, to give them a sense of safety, security, comfort and warmth, helps to transition them to a new life,” said Lubick.
“They are aware of how the soup came to us, they know the community is providing support in a way that shows people care about them, and they have not been forgotten,” she said.
Louise Campsall, another Soup Sisters organizer, said the evening of cooking has become a regular social gathering for various groups in the community.
Fitness classes, book clubs, work/office parties and people from as far away as Haida Gwaii have shown up to spend an evening making soup. And while the majority are women, men are always welcome.
“Two Christmases ago I bought tickets for my husband and three daughters to come and make soup,” said Campsall, a retired special educator. “That was really cool for me to give that as a gift.
“It’s just a fun evening,” she said. “As long as nobody cuts a finger, it’s all good.”
For more information on Soup Sisters or how to join, go to soupsisters.org and follow links to Victoria.
